Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative is a non-profit electric utility located in Corning, Mt. Ayr, and Stanton - servicing member-owners in 11 counties: Adams, Adair, Cass, Decatur, Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold, Taylor, and Union.
Our Mission
Provide safe and reliable electric service, while also advancing community and economic development opportunities, in a manner consistent with sound cooperative business practices and values.
Southwest Iowa REC - Story in the Making
In the early 1930's, prior to the establishment of electric cooperatives such as Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative, rural America was almost in total darkness. Nearly 90% of our nation's rural areas were without electricity.
On May 11, 1935, Congress acted to remove rural areas from the "Dark Ages" by creating the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), now known as the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). At first, low interest REA loans were made available to commercial power companies for the purpose of electrifying rural areas. However, these utilities didn't see much need in participating in the program. So, seeing the need, REA turned to providing financing for member-owners who wanted electricity but were being bypassed. Locally owned, not-for-profit cooperatives were born.
Southwest Iowa REC is a private non-profit electric utility owned by the members it serves and was established to provide reliable and affordable electric service to the rural areas of southwest Iowa. The counties served include Adair, Adams, Cass, Decatur, Fremont, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Ringgold, Taylor, and Union.
Effective January 1, 2004 the cooperatives of Southwest Iowa Services Cooperative and Rideta Electric Cooperative Inc. merged to form Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative. Rideta Electric, Inc., headquartered in Mount Ayr, Iowa was originally incorporated on September 20th, 1940. Southwest Iowa Service Cooperative was established on January 1, 1998 through the consolidation of Adams County Cooperative Electric Company located in Corning, Iowa (incorporated in 1936) and Nyman Electric Cooperative, Inc. in Stanton, Iowa (incorporated in 1940). This consolidation brought together a quality organization that provides electric service to its member-owners. Today, Southwest Iowa REC meets the needs of their member-owners from three facilities located in Corning, Stanton and Mount Ayr.
POWER SUPPLY
Provider of reliable energy
Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative purchases its power requirements from Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO), based in Cedar Rapids. CIPCO is Iowa's largest cooperative energy provider. In operation since 1946, CIPCO has generated and transmitted electricity to 13 member-owned electric cooperatives and associations, including Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative. These cooperatives distribute the power to populations of nearly 300,000 member-owners located in 58 of Iowa's 99 counties. The service territory stretches 300 miles diagonally across Iowa, with 274 member substations and delivery points. CIPCO has a diverse mix of generation resources. Its power and energy is produced from nuclear, coal, oil, a landfill gas-to-energy system, wind and hydro power plants.
CIPCO has a percentage of ownership in a nuclear fueled facility - the NextEra Energ Duane Arnold LLC at Palo, Iowa and three coal-fired plants located in Council Bluffs and Muscatine, Iowa.
Summit Lake Station at Creston, Iowa is owned by CIPCO and is fueled by oil and natural gas.
A purchase power agreement with Linn County Solid Waste Agency was finalized to purchase the entire output from a landfill gas-to-energy system. The 1.6 megawatts of electricity is produced when the system collects methane created by decomposing trash at its landfill site and uses it to power an internal combustion engine that drives a generator to produce electricity.
Wind and Hydro rescoures include power purchase agreements with wind centers located near Greeley, Colo, Garner, Hawkeye, Grand Junction, and Mechanicsville. CIPCO also purchases small amounts from hydroelectric systems and capacity and interchange energy from other utilitites.
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