NRECA

NRECA, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, is the national trade association for America's consumer-owned electric cooperatives. It represents more than 900 such cooperatives - 830 distribution cooperatives and 64 generation and transmission cooperatives - across 48 states. Together they supply power to 42 million people and to over 22 million businesses, homes, schools and farms, mostly in rural America.

The association's work falls into three broad areas: advocacy and policy representation, financial services, and comprehensive business support for member cooperatives. On the policy side it champions energy reliability, cybersecurity, broadband access, environmental policy and rural economic development. Business support extends to technological innovation among member co-ops. Electric cooperatives operate on a member-owned, not-for-profit model in which each member holds an equal share; collectively they return more than $1 billion a year to consumer-members.

Cooperatives serve much of the country's rural territory, including 92% of persistent poverty counties. Technical domains covered by the association and its members span electric power generation, transmission and distribution, rural electrification, energy reliability, cybersecurity, broadband access and environmental policy.