Utility Cooperatives Utility cooperatives supply electricity, water, communication, and similar services to members. Cable television cooperatives are also a type of utility cooperative. Individual households and businesses are the user-owners of the utility service in most cases.
Electric cooperatives furnish electric power and deliver it to the members.
Nearly 1,000 rural electric cooperatives operate more than half of the electric lines in America, providing electricity to more than 25 million people in 46 states. 1 Generation and transmission cooperatives provide power for their members-electric cooperatives owned by consumers. Telephone cooperatives provide telecommunications services to 1.2 milion people in 31 states. In California a new type of utility cooperative, an electricity purchasing cooperative, has been formed. After deregulation of the electric industry in 1998, the California Electric Users Cooperatives, a federation of agricultural cooperatives, was formed to provide electricity services to member cooperatives, who in turn may offer electricity and related services to their members.