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The 2007
Nueces Electric
Cooperative
Caleb Maltby & Brittany Winner King High School, Kingsville, Texas
YOU CAN BE A WINNER, TOO! |
What is a Co-op? (PowerPoint presentation from the US Dept. of Agriculture)
Co-op Information | Utility Overview | Sales Growth | Residential Customers in Texas | Co-op Facts |
Co-op Rates | Consumer Growth |Consumers Per Mile of Line in Texas | Residential Electricity Use |National Cooperative Business Association (Co-op Values and Seven Principles)
A Little About This Year's Essay Topic...
Cooperative Values
Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility,
democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders,
cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social
responsibility and caring for others. As other co-ops, Nueces Electric
Cooperative (NEC) was founded on these values and the principles below.
Seven Cooperative Principles
Voluntary and Open Membership — Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
Democratic Member Control — Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner. Nueces Electric Cooperative members elect the directors who guide and govern the cooperative. Any NEC member who can get 20 members to sign the petition form may become a candidate for director in his or her district. Members choose from among the candidates for each district and elect them at the annual membership meeting of the cooperative. (see the NEC Bylaws for more information about this process).
Member Economic Participation — Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. They usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership. All NEC members pay a $15 membership fee when they first join the cooperative. Member electric service rates at NEC are determined by the cost to provide each service. Studies are conducted at NEC periodically to review costs associated with each service and to evaluate if the price NEC charges for the service fairly reflects those costs, or needs to be adjusted. NEC members also receive capital credits.
Autonomy and Independence — Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy. NEC members, through the directors they elect, own and control the cooperative. This means they govern us, set service rates that are fair, and guide the policies and planning for the cooperative's future. While there are laws and rules we must abide by, NEC is an independent cooperative corporation dedicated only to service to its members.
Education, Training and Information — Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public — particularly young people and opinion leaders — about the nature and benefits of cooperation. Nueces Electric Co-op works to educate it consumers through programs like its Youth Tour Essay Contest, its annual membership meeting, and through regular communications with its members via billing inserts and the center 8 pages it provides each month for its members within the award-winning Texas Co-op Power magazine.
Cooperation among Cooperatives — Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures. Nueces Electric Co-op is very active in state (Texas Electric Cooperatives )and national (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) trade associations for electric cooperatives.
Concern for Community — While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies accepted by their members. NEC is active in local economic and community development efforts and works to support local charities through contributions from distribution service members each month to Operation RoundUP and sponsorships of community activities.
History of Electric Cooperatives
Successful at building plants to service large concentrated markets, for-profit, investor owned utilities (IOUs) in the first third of the 1900's made relatively limited forays into rural America, where scattered farm families were isolated by distance from urban generating plants. As the inhabitants of New York, Chicago, and other cities across the country enjoyed the gleaming lights and the new labor-saving devices powered by electricity, life in rural America remained difficult. On 90 percent of American farms the only artificial light came from smoky, fumy lamps. Water had to be pumped by hand and heated over wood-burning stoves. Virtually every chore required manual labor; for many farm wives the most tiresome of all was the seemingly endless backbreaking drudgery of washing and ironing the family's clothes and linens.
In the 1930s President Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw the solution of this hardship as an opportunity to create new jobs, stimulate manufacturing, and begin to pull the nation out of the despair and hopelessness of the Great Depression. On May 11, 1935, he signed an executive order establishing the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). One of the key pieces of Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives, the REA would provide loans and other assistance so that rural cooperatives—basically, groups of farmers—could build and run their own electrical distribution systems.
The model for the system came from an
engineer. In 1935, Morris Llewellyn Cooke, a mechanical engineer who had devised
efficient rural distribution systems for power companies in New York and
Pennsylvania, had written a report that detailed a plan for electrifying the
nation's rural regions. Appointed by Roosevelt as the REA's first administrator,
Cooke applied an engineer's approach to the problem, instituting what was known
at the time as "scientific management"—essentially systems engineering. Rural
electrification became one of the most successful government programs ever
enacted. Within 2 years it helped bring electricity to some 1.5 million farms
through 350 rural cooperatives in 45 of the 48 states. By 1939 the cost of a
mile of rural line had dropped from $2,000 to $600. Almost half of all farms
were wired by 1942 and virtually all of them by the 1950s.
Getting electric power from where it is generated to customers who need it
remains a critical factor in the electrification of the world in general. The
basic system on which the electrical supply depends—the power grid—hasn't
changed much since its earliest days, except in scale. Power plants equipped
with generators convert a source of energy—fossil fuel, falling water, wind, the
sun, a nuclear reactor—into electricity. That electrical power is then
transmitted through the distribution system to individual buildings, factories,
homes, and farms.
Under the watchful eye of locally elected boards of directors, America’s nearly 1,000 electric cooperatives (including Nueces Electric Cooperative or NEC) are focused on delivering high-quality, reliable, and affordable service every day to the people and businesses they serve. At your local electric cooperative, one priority rings through loud and clear – you the consumer come first! Day in and day out, the men and women at your local cooperative work hard to represent your interests – those of our consumer-owners. Electric cooperatives are "of, by and for" the people they represent. Being a member-consumer of your co-op means you, along with your neighbors, own the company and have a voice in the decisions made on your behalf. And that is a fundamental difference between your local electric co-op and other energy providers.
Let’s face it. Most folks don’t have the time or interest to get too involved in the details of providing safe, reliable power. Most are too busy with their own jobs or families to have the time to focus on these issues. So that’s where your local co-op comes in. Our job is to be your advocate – to put you first – as we work in the energy industry on your behalf.
The values your local co-op brings to the energy business keep us focused on serving your needs and your needs alone. Our Consumers First focus ensures that we continually look for ways to improve our ability to meet your needs and strengthen the quality of life in the communities in which we serve, live and work. The trust you’ve placed in us is something we take very seriously, and we work hard every day to earn it.
There is no question that the energy industry is changing. The collapse of Enron and the power crisis in California and other parts of the country certainly highlighted the problems consumers can face when they do not have a locally based advocate working on their behalf in a changing energy marketplace. Today, in Texas, legislators regret not including electric co-ops in the deregulated Texas retail electric market. They see skyrocketing electric rates for most Texans but at the same time see the value and low prices that electric cooperative continue to bring to their customers. They believe the 74 electric co-ops' dedication to their members and keeping prices low could have provided pressure on the for-profit providers throughout the state to keep electricity prices "in check" for all Texans. NEC is the only cooperative retail provider in the state and offers among the lowest rates available to customers across Texas who choose the NEC Retail Division as their competitive electric power provider.
Changes in the energy industry have certainly given others the opportunity to try and take advantage of consumers. But your local electric co-op continues to fight every step of the way to ensure that the interests of every consumer we serve are protected -- from the very biggest factory, to the small business owner on Main Street, to every one of the hard working families that belong to the cooperative.
But this is nothing new. Electric cooperatives have been offering consumers a real choice from the day we opened our doors. Through your ability to elect board members who will represent you, you -- the consumer -- get to decide how the cooperative is run and what services it offers. Our vision for the future is one that puts the consumer first - above all other priorities. This has been the commitment of electric co-ops like NEC for almost seven decades and it remains so today.
