United REMC is YOUR Electric Cooperative

Our roots date back to the mid-1930s, and our history says a lot about how we do business today. Back then, many rural areas still did not have electricity – it was simply too costly to provide power to sparsely populated areas.

The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was formed to provide low-cost loans to cooperatives that brought electricity to the country. Rural people literally banded together – pooling not only resources but labor as well – to set poles and string electric lines into rural America.

Cooperatives have always been owned by their customers. Instead of stockholders, electric cooperatives are managed by the people they serve.

United REMC is locally owned, locally governed. As a member you have a vote to decide your directors as well as any important issues to come before the general membership. Electric rates are designed to cover operating and purchased power costs. Revenue over and above that is invested in plant facilities and later returned to customers as patronage capital.

Electric cooperatives are located in 46 different states, and collectively own and operate 2.3 million miles of line. They serve 12 million residential meters representing more than 31 million people – 12 percent of all U.S. consumers. Cooperatives provides power to 83 percent of all counties in the U.S. Largely considered rural utilities, that is not always the case. A recently formed cooperative in New York City, First Roachdale, has the potential to serve 500,000 customers.

United has nearly 1,400 miles of lines – and over 25,000 poles. Over half our electric sales are to industrial and commercial accounts.

United was formed in 1965 with the merger of then Allen-Wells REMC, and Huntington County REMC. Historically, United has ranked in the top of all electric utilities in Indiana in terms of low rates.