Editing Utility cooperative (section)

== {{anchor|Electric_Cooperatives}} Electric cooperatives ==
{{Globalize|article|North America|date=January 2017}}

===North America===
{{see also|List_of_utility_cooperatives#US_electric_cooperatives|l1=List of US electric Cooperatives|List_of_utility_cooperatives#Canadian_energy_cooperatives|l2=List of Canadian energy cooperatives}}

[[File:Riverland Energy Cooperative.jpg|thumb|Riverland Energy Cooperative near [[Arcadia, Wisconsin]]]]

There are two types of electric cooperatives: distribution cooperatives and generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives. Distribution electric cooperatives serve end-users, such as residences and businesses, who make up their membership. Generation and transmission cooperatives typically sell wholesale power to distribution cooperatives and are [[cooperative federation]]s owned by their member co-ops.

====Naming====
Most electric cooperatives in the United States include the phrase "electric cooperative" in their name, which makes it easy to identify their organization. Most cooperatives have a name that identifies or explains some aspect of their service area. For example, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Texas is named after the [[Lupinus texensis|Bluebonnet]] which grows naturally in its service area. Lyntegar Electric Cooperative, also in Texas, is named for the three original counties that came together to organize it, [[Lynn County, Texas|Lynn County]], [[Terry County, Texas|Terry County]], and [[Garza County, Texas|Garza County]], and [[A&N Electric Cooperative]] in Virginia, is named so because it serves [[Accomack County, Virginia|Accomack County]] and [[Northampton County, Virginia|Northampton County]]. For years after the [[Rural Electrification Administration]] was established, many rural residents in the US called cooperatives "REA", regardless of their actual name, and would in turn say they were served by REA instead of the cooperative name if asked who their electric provider was. Today, some cooperatives, either by choice or by the guidance of state charter laws, carry a variation of the cooperative name. These include:

*Electric Cooperative Association
*Electric Membership Cooperative (EMC) - used in many states, such as Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama
*Electric Power Association (EPA) - mainly used in Mississippi
*Energy Cooperative
*Power Cooperative
*Rural Electric Association
*Rural Electric Cooperative
*Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation (RECC) - mainly used in Kentucky<ref name="kentucky">{{Cite web |url=http://www.kaec.org/faq.htm |title=Electric Cooperative FAQ - KAEC |access-date=2011-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122034138/http://www.kaec.org/faq.htm |archive-date=2011-11-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Rural Electric Membership Corporation (REMC)

Several states have another variation of the utility cooperative, known as Public Power Districts (PPDs) in Nebraska and Public Utility Districts (PUDs) in Oregon and Washington. In both cases, the laws that created these "quasi-cooperative" utilities were created with the specific intent of taking over territory being served by privately owned power companies in those states. Nebraska's conversion from a mixture of power companies serving the state to a public power empire spanned the 1940s (the last privately owned utility line into the state being cut on December 29, 1949), with the creation of the PUDs in the Pacific Northwest starting about the same time and continuing with varying degrees of success over the following two decades. The key difference between a PPD/PUD and a cooperative is that PPDs/PUDs are publicly controlled by residents of a state or local area and run more like a municipal power system than a cooperative system. A cooperative is owned and operated by the customers they serve within their designated service area. Cooperative owners have voting rights to elect the cooperative's board members each year and generally have more say in the operations than other utility forms.

==== Peer associations ====
Small cooperatives often band together to achieve [[economies of scale]], share expertise and stand together on regulatory issues.  There are several statewide (and in Canada, province-wide) associations of cooperatives, including Kentucky<ref name="kentucky"/> and Nova Scotia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://energy.novascotia.ca/|title=Department of Energy and Mines {{!}}|website=energy.novascotia.ca|access-date=2019-11-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ns1758.ca/electric/electricpwr10.html |title = NS News and Trends - Professional Online Magazine News And Trends| date=8 August 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.town.berwick.ns.ca/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,362/gid,560/task,doc_download/+Nova+Scotia+municipal+electric+utilities+corporation |title = Berwick 'Three - Stars' 1933 - 1936 Western Nova Scotia Junior Hockey Champions - Town of Berwick}}</ref> A cooperative of cooperatives, in which several smaller level cooperatives come together to form a bigger higher level cooperative, is called the secondary cooperative. Secondary cooperative is different from the association. Cooperative of secondary cooperative is called tertiary cooperatives. For example, each village may have a village level cooperative. Several village cooperatives may form a district level secondary cooperative in which village level cooperatives have a share. Several district level cooperatives may form a state level tertiary cooperative, and so on.

===Europe===
In 2013, REScoop,<ref>[http://www.rescoop.eu REScoop]</ref> a European federation of energy co-operatives, both producers' and consumers', was launched. It has 11 members in seven countries.

In the UK, [[Co-operative Energy]] was established in 2010 by [[Midcounties Co-operative]] and supplies electricity and gas across the country.

===Philippines===
{{See also|Electric cooperatives of the Philippines|Electricity sector in the Philippines}}
Electricity in most provinces of the Philippines are served by cooperatives, and all belong to the distribution sector, which serve the end customers, who own the cooperative themselves. Electric cooperatives in the Philippines are overseen by the government through the [[National Electrification Administration]] (NEA), and rates set by the cooperatives are regulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), an agency belonging to the [[Department of Energy (Philippines)|Department of Energy]] (DOE).