Published: April 21, 2008 11:23 am            

AEC rippling with energy for rural electric users

Electric company opened its first office in Cherokee in 1937

There’s a storm outside. The crack of thunder brings a lightening strike. You are sitting in your home, and the lights flicker on and off. The weatherman is on the battery operated radio saying severe weather is at hand. The lights go out and desperation sets in. What can you do, and who can help you?

Electricity is a key ingredient in the quality of life for modern people. Often, though, it is taken for granted, until the lights go out. Fortunately, there are companies like Alfalfa Electric Cooperative, Inc. there to make sure people don’t have to live life in the dark, physically and metaphorically.

AEC is not just a provider of electricity, though. The company, based in Oklahoma in Cherokee, is an interactive institution that provides everything from Internet service to cell phone and heating and air.

“We try and look at how we can improve life for rural people,” Ron Shafer, manager of operations & public relations at AEC, said. “It was started with the explicit intent to bring electricity to areas that don’t get it normally.”

AEC is a non-profit organization. Any money the company makes goes back into providing services. When disaster strikes, the company finds themselves often paying to repair the damages itself. They first opened in Cherokee in 1937 to provide service to rural areas of Oklahoma and Kansas. They operate mainly in northern Oklahoma in Alfalfa, Grant, Major and Woods counties and in southern Kansas in Barber and Harper counties.

The company is not the average electric company. Each of its members is an owner. They now have about 4,200 member owners. In 1986, AEC, essentially, bought the city of Cherokee’ electric system. Having the company in the Cherokee community has opened up many job opportunities for residents.

The company serves about 8,000 meters and 3,163 miles of line in the seven counties they serve.

AEC provides heating and air through AEC Services, Inc. Shafer said, because of the company’s location in Cherokee, they really are not in competition with any other electric providers like Oklahoma Gas & Electric. In fact, they often work for customers who also have accounts with OG&E.

“We have customers even that are being served by OG&E that we work on their heating and air conditioning,” Shafer said. “It’s not just electric but gas, as well.”

Through Pioneer Telephone, the company is an agent able to provide cellular phone service to customers in rural areas. With competitive prices and a variety of phones, AEC gives rural Oklahomans the opportunity to keep in touch.

“All of our members can come to our office, and we can hook them up with a brand new cell phone or cellphone service, just like if they went to any other Pioneer office,” Shafer said.

Shafer said one of the bigger things the company has done is provide satellite television service in the past. Cable service is often not very accessible to people in rural areas. Shafer said this was the reason AEC decided to get into the market through Dish Network. The company has since stopped its satellite service, though.

“It seemed to be mutual between us and Dish Network,” Shafer said. “There really wasn’t any reason for us to be in that anymore. We were really not competing. We were just an agent for Dish Net.”

They have a program called Operation Roundup (ORU). The program allows the company to round-up the bill of anyone who chooses to participate. With ORU, the money will go to local charities or grants.

“We’ve had people apply for grants who have had hardships in their family,” Shafer said. “We’ve had people apply because they are making repairs to an old home. We’ve had schools apply for grants, because they are putting in new playgrounds. All kinds of different organizations have applied for grants.”

For, example the company recently helped a wheelchair bound member build a wheelchair ramp for their home.

Shafer said they have given out over $147,000 since they started the program almost five years ago. It is something they are most proud of, being able to help members who are in need.

The company’s mission statement reads, to provide competitively priced utility and related services to our present and future membership. These services are vast and somewhat unlimited for the residents of the rural counties they serve, which keeps them all in the light.

“We are a good community partner, or we try to be,” Shafer said.