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Our History

Butler Electric Cooperative Our History

Welcome!  If you are new to the world of Rural Electric Cooperatives, we would like to give you some background about our industry.

When local suppliers refused to provide electric service to rural residents, the residents banded together and built the facilities themselves. Butler Rural Electric Cooperative Association was incorporated on July 21, 1938, and energized its first lines on February 15, 1940. From an original plant value of $146,000, we have grown to a plant value of approximately $60,000,000.

We provide electric power to residential, commercial and industrial accounts in portions of Butler, Chase, Cowley, Greenwood, Harvey, Marion, and Sedgwick counties. Electricity brought many changes to rural America,
replacing kerosene lanterns and literally bringing the farm out of the darkness. We were an integral part in making our nation's farms the best producing in the world, and we are very proud of our heritage.

Butler REC is owned by its members and governed by a Board of Directors elected from the membership by the members.  We supply electric power to 7,000 meters through 1,850 miles of transmission and distribution lines and own 13 substations or delivery points. Through our membership in Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, we own part of the nuclear generating facility at Wolf Creek. This also allows us to have access to power grids, enabling the purchase of hydro-power, the least expensive power available, from the Southwest Power Administration. Our primary financing is done through National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation.
We are a nonprofit organization, and any margins we have at the end of each year are allocated back to our members in the form of capital credits. As the financial status of the Coop permits, these credits are refunded to the membership, putting that money back in your pocket instead of someone else's. We do not burden our members with investment demands for high profits and this helps us keep our rates as low as possible. Butler REC has 46 full-time employees. We support 4-H activities, fund two scholarships at Butler County Community College, send two academically outstanding high school juniors to energy seminars in Washington, D.C. and Steamboat Springs, Colorado and we are involved in numerous other community projects.

  We hope you will take an active part in the future of Butler REC. The future holds many challenges, and we welcome your participation. If you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate to call us. You are the reason we are here.
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