Local ownership distinguishes electric cooperatives from many other utilities.
The more than 535,000 cooperative consumers in South Carolina own and control their electric companies. BACK TO TOP Territories assigned by state law Electric utilities are assigned specific service territories by law. This helps consumers by preventing duplication of facilities, which would add unnecessary costs as well as create hazardous conditions if utilities were allowed to build power lines on top of each other. In many electric cooperative service areas, consumers are more spread out along the power lines than in large cities. The number of consumers per mile of line is an important figure to any electric utility.