January 2012
Celebrating International Year of Cooperatives
by Keven J. Groenewold
Keven J. Groenewold
Last year, the U.S. Senate—building off similar action by the United Nations General Assembly—designated 2012 as International Year of Cooperatives. As a result, cooperatives everywhere are celebrating our unique not-for-profit, member-owned and controlled business model.
If you've read this column in the past then you know all about an electric cooperative—as a result, you and everyone else who receives electric service from us can be a member, not a customer.
Because you and your fellow members govern how we operate, our top priority remains providing safe and reliable service and keeping your electric bills affordable. Local control also means we're in the business of improving the quality of life in the communities we serve, from offering college scholarships to advice on how you can make your home or business more energy efficient.
Electric co-ops are just one type of cooperative operating in America. Today, dairy cooperatives produce nearly 90 percent of our nations' milk. Credit unions? They're cooperatives, too, with more than 8,000 across the country serving 91 million consumers. You can also find housing, hardware and even funeral co-ops throughout the U.S. Some agricultural marketing cooperatives have become household names: Sunkist, Ocean Spray, and Blue Diamond Almonds for example.
Together, all of us are a key part of our local economy. We provide good jobs to folks who live right here—your neighbors and friends. We deliver goods and services that keep our communities humming. We're happy to lend a hand when we're able, and we enjoy being involved with schools and community organizations.
New Mexico rural electric co-ops return any excess profits, called margins, to you in the form of capital credits. That money then gets reinvested locally—perhaps at a grocery store or other retail outlet, which in turn allows the owners to hire more people.
Together we have accomplished many things since the first electric co-op was organized 75 years ago in Artesia, NM. We serve over 210,000 families and businesses. We are part of a power grid that the National Society of Professional Engineers called the greatest technological achievement of the last century.
In New Mexico, our grid extends over 45,000 miles and 80 percent of the land area in the state. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days of the year. Unlike other forms of energy, electricity cannot be stored in any kind of quantity. So, it is created, transported and consumed on a moment's notice, in real-time. All the while the grid is balancing generation from power plants with the load requirements of our consumer-owners.
This co-op model and the skills by which those that came before us have implemented its existence is certainly something to be celebrated and appreciated. While not a new concept—Benjamin Franklin started the first cooperative, the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, in 1752 (it still operates today!)— the cooperative form of business continues as an integral part of our lives each day.
Please join the New Mexico rural electric cooperatives as we celebrate the International Year of Cooperatives and the 75th anniversary of our beginning in New Mexico.
