Electric co-ops power Alaska.

• Author: Hunt, Barbara

First brought to Alaska as part of the New Deal, electric co-ops are a unique business arrangements that have helped spread power throughout the state.

The coffee is hot. Sitting around the table, discussing the health of their community, are a fence builder, a business woman, a resource consultant, a steel fabricator, a gravel hauler and fisherman, and a retired police and correctional officer. This isn't a PTA meeting. This is the monthly board meeting for an electric cooperative.

These board members reflect a profile of the local residents. Elected by their neighbors, these local folks easily discuss generating capacity, substations, and investments. Here, like in many areas of the state, members of an electric cooperative are attempting to solve problems for themselves and their communities.

In Alaska, electric power is a necessity. Low temperatures and long seasons of darkness force a constant demand for heat and light. More than 357,000 Alaskans receive their electricity from electric cooperatives. But, despite the numbers, the concepts of electric power and cooperatives are poorly understood.

Alaska is now in its second and third generation of electric power users. Younger consumers take electricity for granted. Nationwide, this trend is familiar. Electricity users can't remember what it was like to live without a simple switch that automatically fills the room with light. Only when a lightbulb burns out - or when there is a power outage - is electricity fully appreciated.

Confusion also reigns regarding electric cooperatives. Co-ops are an old, rural concept - far too blockish to fit in the sleek 1990s. Usually, members take an interest in cooperative elections only if colorful controversy, prizes or free food are involved. And yearly capital credits are neither appreciated nor understood by the consumer.

Historical Creatures

The "cooperative concept" dates back to the early 1800s, with the initiation of the Rochdale Co-op in England. Poor weavers collected and pooled their resources to start their own revolutionary new business concept. The basis was and continues to be that a non-profit cooperative is owned and controlled by the consumers it serves.

The bylaws of electric cooperatives of the 1990s have similar principles - which outlined the original pioneer co-op:

1. Cooperatives - of any sort - are recognized for their democratic control.

2. All members are owners and have one equal vote - without regard to wealth or size.

3. ...