Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative

The Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative or CMEEC (pronounced 'SEE-mek') is a public power entity that provides electric services to several municipal utilities and participating wholesale customers located in Connecticut. The municipal utilities, in turn, provide electricity to roughly 70,000 residential, commercial/industrial and small business customers located across the state. CMEEC is headquartered in Norwich, Connecticut, in the U.S.

Established in 1976 as a publicly directed joint action supply agency, CMEEC is governed by a member-based Board of Directors. Our mission and operating principles are founded on state statutes, CMEEC bylaws and a long-standing commitment to serve community utilities.

Member owners and participants: CMEEC is owned by municipal utilities in the cities of Groton and Norwich, the Borough of Jewett City, and the Second (South Norwalk) and Third (East Norwalk) Taxing Districts of the City of Norwalk, Connecticut. CMEEC provides wholesale power and related requirements to these member utilities, as well as to other participating utilities including the Bozrah Light and Power Company and the Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority.

Services

CMEEC is responsible for the financing, acquisition and construction of generating resources and implementation of power supply contracts for the purpose of furnishing low-cost and reliable electric power to its members and participants. Electric energy purchase contracts and other resources obtained by CMEEC supply power to each of the community-owned utilities. The utilities in turn distribute the power at retail to local homes and businesses at the lowest prices in Connecticut.

Power supply

Sources of electric power range from nuclear plants to hydroelectric stations in Connecticut to massive power dams in Canada and New York. Power is acquired from different generating sources, including short- and long-term contracts for different types of power purchases and municipally-owned generating stations, and from joint ownership arrangements. Power is transmitted to municipal utilities under negotiated rights to interconnecting transmission systems.

Representation

CMEEC represents our members and participants as a single-entity participant in the regional Independent System Operation (ISO-New England) and the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL). CMEEC serves as the designated bargaining agent for the State of Connecticut with respect to the New York Power Authority's allocation of Niagara and St. Lawrence power supply. CMEEC actively participates in industry groups such as: the American Public Power Association (APPA), the Northeast Public Power Association (NEPPA), the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), and the Connecticut Valley Electric Exchange (CONVEX).

Mission

CMEEC's mission is to enable the municipal electric utilities to be the providers of choice through a diverse, stable, predictable, integrated portfolio of generation, transmission, energy efficiency and load management resources that maximizes the competitive position of Connecticut's municipal utilities in the retail electric market.

Vision

CMEEC's vision is to be a joint action entity that enables Connecticut's municipal utilities to meet the diverse needs of their customers at the lowest possible cost in an environmentally acceptable manner in a constantly changing electric energy industry.

Objectives

CMEEC's Board of Directors adopted a set of nine objectives to guide the organization's policies and performance.

1. Regional competitiveness: Manage portfolio to provide electric products to Member utility and participant customers at competitive costs across the region. Maintain lowest cost to provide essential service to the community and maintain long-term financial integrity.
2. Financial stability: Enable the organization to continue its path of excellence by managing the operation to maintain and improve credit rating, attain revenue plans, and meet operating and capital budgets.
3. Supply reliability: Plan, deploy and manage operations and assets to ensure supply reliability meets or exceeds established standards and customer expectations. Ensure compliance with reliability consortium standards.
4. Customer fulfillment: Meet and exceed customer qualitative impressions on a continuing basis in communication, cost performance reconciliation, forward cost projections, and balance of service performance.
5. Maximize asset value: Achieve the highest level of value for stakeholders and return on assets by continuously improving business processes to positively impact resource utilization, efficiency and effectiveness.
6. Organizational leadership: Establish and set the direction of the organization, develop and enhance individual and corporate ability, promote organizational sustainability by providing positive visibility and leadership within CMEEC/TRANSCO and the communities, as well as industry and regulatory agencies.
7. Workforce development: Ensure the skills and knowledge required to effectively perform business processes are readily available to the organization in all positions, in the appropriate locations, and in prudent numbers, today and into the future.
8. Regulatory stewardship: Meet or exceed compliance with regulatory (federal, state and local) rules and guidelines. Ensure any deviations from regulations are noted, corrective action is implemented, and repeat incidents do not occur. Inculcate regulatory stewardship throughout the organization.
9. Safe workplace: Create and sustain a workplace environment in which employees and contractors effectively perform their duties without unreasonable threat of physical harm. Operate facilities, plants and vehicles to ensure a safe environment for communities, structures and people.

Values

CMEEC envisions a secure energy future for the customers and communities we served, based on our guiding principles.

• CMEEC will accomplish its mission and vision in a manner consistent with its core values
• CMEEC will promote a business environment and culture that is committed to supporting the needs of the Connecticut municipal utilities
• CMEEC will promote all efforts to maintain and improve a collaborative Member and Board relationship and to encourage joint action by the Connecticut municipal utilities
• CMEEC will conduct its business with sustainable financial integrity
• CMEEC will promote a work environment that attracts and retains high quality individuals and enable its employees to develop their full potential
• CMEEC will promote ethical behavior and conduct at all levels within and outside of its organization
• CMEEC will promote efforts consistent with sound environmental stewardship with energy efficiency and conservation as a natural implementation resource
• CMEEC projects will be constructed, procured and operated with due regard for the environment and the safety of personnel

Legislative actions by Connecticut's General Assembly, dating back to the late 1800s or early 1900s, defined the franchise areas of each municipal utility and limited electric service to the municipality itself, an adjacent municipality and/or portions therein. In 1975, the municipals worked together to obtain passage of legislation allowing them to form their own power supply company:

State statutes 'permit municipal electric utilities in Connecticut to join together and form cooperative public corporations for the financing of the construction and acquisition of facilities for the purpose of furnishing efficient, low cost and reliable electric power in their areas of operation.' For additional information, refer to Chapter 101 of the Connecticut General Statutes.

The Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative (CMEEC) was formed in 1976 to be the electric power supplier for the state's municipal utilities.

CMEEC became fully operational in 1978 as a non-profit, joint action power supply agency. Today CMEEC carries out financing, acquisition, construction and operation of generating resources, and implementation of power supply contracts. CMEEC supplies power to its members and wholesale customers through various sources, including fossil-fueled generators, nuclear plants, hydroelectric stations in Connecticut and massive power dams in Canada and New York.

All-requirements: CMEEC's all-requirements model requires member utilities to commit to purchase essentially all electric power requirements from CMEEC. This commitment results in a joint action agency with cooperative strengths vital to CMEEC's dealings with other utilities, the investment community and other energy industry stakeholders.

Tax-exempt: A basic statutory power given to CMEEC is legal authority to issue long-term tax-exempt electric power supply revenue bonds. CMEEC has the ability under law to borrow money at relatively low interest rates to pay for obtaining electric generating and transmission facilities. Repayment of interest received by bond-holders – the lender of money to CMEEC – is tax-exempt because the money borrowed is used for non-profit essential municipal utility purposes. CMEEC bonds are secured by power sales contracts between the agency and its Member or Participant utilities.

The first three member contracts were signed in 1979 when Norwich, Groton and Jewett City agreed to purchase their electric power requirements from CMEEC; Norwalk Third Taxing District and South Norwalk Electric Works signed on as members in 1988. Utilities later signed on as participants, including Bozrah Light & Power Company in 1995 and the Mohegan Tribal Utility Authority in 1996. 

Customer-driven: The municipal utilities do not conduct their electric operations for shareholder profit. In fact, there are no shareholders of either CMEEC or the municipal utilities. The customers and citizens of the municipality are the only 'shareholders' for municipal utilities.

Cost-based: Under the contracts, money paid to CMEEC for community electricity goes to pay the real costs of obtaining the power, such as direct power production costs, basic staffing costs, power plant financing costs, and costs of entering into more beneficial power supply contracts with regional suppliers. Importantly, money collected by CMEEC under rates for electricity supplied to municipals includes no so-called profit or shareholder dividends.