“Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative, Inc., is a member-owned business that delivers competitively priced electric power and works to improve our members’ quality of life.”
The Power of Our History
Electricity. We now take it for granted. Our lights, the appliances we use around the home, and the tools necessary to do our jobs all make our lives easier. But it wasn’t always so simple.
It was President Roosevelt who called electricity “A modern necessity of life that ought to be found in every village, every home, and every farm in every part of the United States.” In 1935, he signed Executive Order No. 7037, creating a Rural Electrification Administration (REA) “to initiate, formulate, administer, and supervise a program of approved projects with respect to the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric energy in rural areas.” However, no private utilities in Oklahoma took advantage of the REA loans to extend their service to rural people.
So, power when it was needed, where it was needed, was not a luxury enjoyed in northeast Oklahoma. That is, until September 19, 1938. It was on that date that a small group of rural people realized that getting affordable electricity to their homes and farms was going to be their responsibility alone.
To our electric cooperative founders we say “thank you” for the boundless spirit shown to provide us with a service we so often take for granted. And today, you, the cooperative members of Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative continue to show that same spirit. It’s you – the members – who make your electric cooperative powerful.
Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative Today
The cooperative serves over 28,000 members in a seven-county area with 38,000 plus meters. Over 5,000 miles of power lines spread across the geographically-diverse service territory, consisting of both overhead and underground structures. With approximately 200 employees, the cooperative and its subsidiary are one of the largest employers in the area.
