Our Beginnings

Traditionally, farmers and small town residents have always found ways to work together for their common good. This spirit of cooperation lives on today, through legally incorporated enterprises known as cooperatives which provide us the one-time luxury, but now modern-day necessity of “central station” electric service.

Not that long ago, rural citizens knew their work and play had to be done during daylight hours. If their cooking, farming, cleaning, and chores wasn’t finished by sundown, they were faced with the awkward task of working by candlelight, using oil-fed lanterns. Machinery was hand-operated. Heating was done by lighting a fire, and air conditioning was only a fantasy. Electricity was being enjoyed only by those within city limits large enough to support the infrastructure needed to supply power to their homes and businesses. Most rural people could not secure electric service from existing electrical distributors at a price they could afford.

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration, which made federal funds available to provide electric power to those in outlying areas; which consisted largely of our nation’s farmers. Power companies showed little interest at first, forcing leaders of farm organizations to form nonprofit electric cooperatives. Member-owned, business-managed, taxpaying electric cooperatives began to grow in number across the country.

In 1935, only 4 percent of Tennessee’s rural population had central station service. Today, thanks to 23 rural electric systems reflecting the determination of rural and small town residents to provide themselves with a service so long and so unjustly denied, more than 99 percent of the Volunteer State’s rural residents receive central station electric service. The small remainder could have electricity within hours, or at most a few days, after application for service from the rural system serving their area.

Electric Cooperatives: The Hometown Advantage

Today, the life of every American is touched in some way by cooperative enterprises. Approximately 40,000 separate cooperative organizations, with more than 50 million members, currently operate in this country.
Statistics show that, of these 40,000 cooperatives, approximately 6,700 are member-owned, such as our electric cooperatives.

Tennessee’s rural electric systems are in step with the balanced progress that is making a great state even greater. Rural electric systems came into being and have progressed to their present state because they were designed for service to many people, rather than financial profit for a few.

Locally directed by member-elected boards, rural electric systems in Tennessee simply wish to be given the protection that will permit them to continue their growth free and unhampered from selfish interests.

Tennessee’s electric cooperatives are active in your communities. Our employees serve on your school committees, volunteer in your church and civic groups, and make an impact in your neighborhoods. Locally owned -- by you -- and operated by those around you, your electric cooperative provides the hometown advantage all teams need to pull together, knowing “we’re in this together.”