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Cooperatives and Communities: For economic success they depend on each other
Before Hyundai, before Honda, before Mercedez, one central Alabama electric
utility decided that to improve its financial picture and the communities it
serves, it had to do something aggressive.
Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative was the first electric cooperative in Alabama
to think seriously about economic development.
The utility has built several speculative buildings and has helped recruit
new industries to its service area. But its program is not just focused on
attracting new business. The cooperative has helped many of its existing customers
as well.
By their nature electric cooperatives typically serve rural communities, because
they were founded just for that – to bring power to rural America. Investor-owned
(IOU) and municipal utilities typically serve the more developed and urban
areas (cities).
The benefits of commercial and industrial growth for any electric utility,
not just cooperatives, are many. For starters, it’s good revenue. Industries
and businesses typically use more power on a more consistent basis than residential
consumers, even aggregated. This steady consumption can help reduce the per-unit
cost of power for the cooperative and the overall cost of electricity to the
end user.
Industries and businesses provide jobs with good benefits to cooperative consumers
and pump revenues into local tax coffers. Consumers with good jobs can afford
to buy and build bigger homes and spend more money in their communities, thereby
creating even more jobs. And if the community grows, the cooperative will grow.
Many times, people view economic development as the recruitment of new businesses
and industries to an area. And while those actions certainly make the big headlines,
Coosa Valley Electric also sees the potential for expansion in its existing
business consumers as well.
Over the past four years, CVEC has helped Pro Sports Boats, Allen Architectural
and Legacy Cabinets with expansion projects that have helped the companies
meet growth expectations and improve their operations.
“These projects benefited Coosa Valley Electric and the companies greatly,” said
Frank Kujawski, CVEC general manager. “We helped them find the necessary
capital to fund their expansions and improved our relationships at the same
time.”
Not only will the larger facility bring more revenue into the cooperative,
but these companies hired more employees and increased production capacity
to meet growing demand in each of their respective industries.
“We are tied to the success of the communities we serve and without employers
that can provide good jobs, communities will die,” Kujawski said. “This
just becomes a win-win for everybody. The companies, the cooperative, the employees
and the communities are all helped by us working together.”
For more information, contact:
Jon Cullimore 362-4180 or 1-800-273-7210, ext. 225, Fax: 256-761-2615, Cell:
256-299-0551
Barbara Edmondson 1-800-273-7210, ext. 224
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