BY SCOTT FLOOD
You might be surprised to learn that your local electric cooperative doesn’t generate the electricity you use in your home or business. In most cases, your co-op does not own a power plant but instead purchases electricity from an outside source and then routes the power to your community.
For more than 800 electric cooperatives across the country, the source of electricity is a different kind of cooperative. Referred to as G&Ts, these generation and transmission cooperatives exist to help electric co-ops serve their members as reliably and affordably as possible. Their only members are local electric co-ops, so G&Ts are actually cooperatives that serve – you guessed it – cooperatives.
Providing at-cost power
Across the nation, 64 G&T cooperatives provide access to wholesale (at-cost) power at a better price than each of their member co-ops could obtain on their own. Most G&Ts go beyond the delivery of power to provide sophisticated business resources that would typically be out of reach for local co-ops.
Like your local co-op, G&Ts are not-for-profit organizations that exist to serve the needs of their members. G&Ts generally serve all the co-ops in a specific geographic area.
In Iowa, electric co-ops are members of various G&T cooperatives (see map below). These G&Ts generate electricity at multiple sites using a diverse mix of fuels such as coal, natural gas, wind, solar, hydro and landfill gas.
G&Ts employ a leadership team of experts in data, finance, engineering, economic development, environmental management and other important specialties essential for electric co-ops. The G&T operates behind the scenes to support the local co-op’s teams, and although G&Ts may be largely unseen, they operate with complete transparency.
G&Ts are best known as the source for at-cost electricity that is generated elsewhere, then delivered to your local co-op over high-voltage transmission lines. Your co-op uses distribution power lines and transformers to then deliver that electricity to your home or business.
Most G&Ts maintain their own power plants, while others purchase power for their members on the wholesale market. Some G&Ts manage a combination of native power generation and purchases. Because a G&T buys enough power to supply all its member co-ops, it has the bargaining power to secure significantly lower prices than those co-ops could negotiate by themselves. Regardless of how they’re structured, G&Ts help keep your electric bill smaller.
Energy reliability is paramount
Just as important is the work G&Ts perform in planning. The nation’s energy landscape is changing rapidly. G&Ts constantly work with local co-op staff to study and forecast power needs. They consider how growing communities might affect the demand for electricity in the future and work closely with local co-ops when power reliability is challenged, such as times when electricity demand outpaces supply or after a major weather event.
In addition to obtaining the electricity local co-ops need, G&Ts improve and maintain the reliability of the infrastructure co-ops and their communities depend upon. By working with local co-op staff to upgrade transmission lines and deploy substations, they make sure the power will be there for members like you when you need it. G&Ts also work closely with government agencies that monitor and manage the nation’s electric grid.
So, while your co-op may not own the power plant that generates the electricity you use every day, it’s part of an even bigger not-for-profit cooperative whose mission is to make your service even more reliable and affordable. As the power behind your power, just like your electric co-op, G&T cooperatives exist to serve you.
Scott Flood writes on a variety of energy-related topics for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
