Electric Cooperative Statistics
864 distribution and 66 generation & transmission cooperatives serve:
- 40 million people in 47 states.
- 17 million businesses, homes, schools, churches, farms, irrigation systems, and other establishments in 2,500 of 3,141 counties in the U.S. (80 percent of the nation’s counties).
- 12 percent of the nation's population.
To perform their mission, electric cooperatives:
- own assets worth $92 billion,
- own and maintain 2.4 million miles, or 43%, of the nation’s electric distribution lines, covering three quarters of the nation's landmass,
- deliver 10 percent of the total kilowatt hours sold in the U.S. each year,
- generate nearly 5 percent of the total electricity produced in the U.S. each year,
- employ 65,000 people in the United States,
- pay more than $1 billion in state and local taxes.
Electric utility comparisons |
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| Investor-Owned | Publicly-Owned | Cooperatives | Total | |
| Number of Organizations | 220 | 2000 | 930 | 3,150 |
| Number of Total Customers (millions) | 99 | 20 | 17 | 136 |
| Size (median number of customers) | 395,000 | 1,900 | 12,000 | |
| Customers, % of total | 73% | 14% | 12% | 100% |
| Revenues, % of total | 75% | 14% | 10% | 100% |
| kWh sales, % of total | 75% | 15% | 10% | 100% |
| Sales (billion kilowatt hours) | Investor-Owned | Publicly-Owned | Cooperatives | Total |
| Residential | 900 | 190 | 200 | 1,290 |
| Commercial | 963 | 198 | 69 | 1,230 |
| Industrial | 698 | 148 | 77 | 923 |
| Other | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Total | 2,564 | 539 | 346 | 3,449 |
| Investor-Owned | Publicly-Owned | Cooperatives | Total | |
| Miles of Distribution Line | 50% | 7% | 43% | 100% |
| Customers per mile of line (density) | 35 | 47 | 7 | 33.9 |
| Revenue per mile of line | $62,665 | $86,302 | $10,565 | $60,827 |
| Distribution plant per customer | $2,299 | $2,309 | $2,845 | $2,362 |
| Assets (billions) | $660 | $162 | $92 | $914 |
| Equity (billions) | $181 | $50 | $28 | $279 |
Note: "Investor-Owned" includes data for IOU affiliates engaged in competitive retail markets where appropriate.
Source: 2004 EIA, RUS Data, CFC
NRECA Strategic Analysis, Last Updated: January 2006
National Representation
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) represents the national interests of cooperative electric utilities. NRECA provides legislative, legal and regulatory services; and programs in insurance, management and employee education, training, consulting, public relations and advertising. NRECA and its member cooperatives also support energy and environmental research and administer a program of technical advice and assistance in developing countries around the world.
NRECA Chief Executive Officer
In March 1994, Glenn English became the fourth chief executive officer of NRECA. He is the leading spokesperson for the nation's consumer-owned cooperative electric utilities.
Before coming to NRECA, English was a 10-term Congressman representing Oklahoma's 6th District. He served on the House Agriculture Committee with assignments on several subcommittees, including service as chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, and Rural Development, beginning in 1989. As chairman, English worked directly on legislation affecting rural development programs, including rural electrification and telecommunications, and pursued an aggressive agenda to revitalize the economy of America's rural communities.
He also was a senior member of the Government Operation Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Information, Justice, and Agriculture from 1981-89. During that period, the subcommittee monitored the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) -- now the Rural Utilities Service -- an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
