Today In Mississippi

Your electric co-op remains
committed to cost cutting

By Michael Callahan
Electric Power Associations of Mississippi Executive Vice President/CEO

We want to make electricity affordable for everyone who wants it, whether a mega-million-dollar manufacturing plant or a senior citizen living on a fixed income.

In fact, the concept of affordable electric service was the motivator behind the creation of electric power associations in Mississippi. These not-for-profit electric cooperatives were seen as an antidote to the substandard quality of life that prevailed in 1930s rural Mississippi.

Back then, less than 1 percent of farms in Mississippi had electric service, although most town residents had enjoyed it for at least a decade. The investor-owned utilities serving the towns were reluctant to take on the high cost of extending power lines deep into rural areas, where electricity was largely unknown (and even feared by some). The power companies knew there wouldn’t be any profit in serving only a handful of consumers per mile of power line.

Fortunately, there were enough progressive-minded rural Mississippians who were fed up with their 19th century lifestyle and willing to take matters into their own hands. Knocking on doors to recruit neighbors into the effort, they set about creating their own electric cooperatives to obtain affordable electricity for their homes and farm operations.

The fight to keep electric service affordable remains a chief mission of Mississippi’s 26 electric power associations. In the face of increasing demand and rising fuel costs, we have an edge over other types of utilities in this effort because we are not-for-profit cooperatives. Our rates don’t include a profit margin. Your monthly power bill reflects our cost of buying wholesale electricity and delivering it to your meter. It’s a complex operation that includes construction, maintenance, expansions, upgrades, and troubleshooting for thousands of miles of power lines.

Another built-in cost-control aspect of the cooperative form of electric utility is its leadership. Your electric power association’s board of directors is composed entirely of electric power association members, so they pay the same electric rates you pay. It stands to reason they will do everything in their power to keep rates as low as possible, without sacrificing service reliability, safety or the financial stability of the cooperative.

Electric power associations discovered early on that a key to controlling costs was to share them with each other. This they achieve through membership in the Electric Power Associations of Mississippi, which provides them with a wide range of services from employee training and loss control to economic development support and publication of Today in Mississippi.

You can find evidence of significant cost-control efforts in every aspect of our management and operations. It’s how we’re keeping our promise of affordable electric service to you, now and in the future.

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Electric Power Associations of Mississippi
P.O. Box 3300 Ridgeland, Mississippi 39158-3300 phone 601.605.8600 fax 601.605.8601