East Kentucky Power Cooperative

More than 530,000 homes and businesses in 87 Kentucky counties depend on East Kentucky Power Cooperative and its 16 owner-member cooperatives for safe, reliable, affordable electric power.

EKPC is owned by 16 electric distribution co-ops located in Central and Eastern Kentucky. Those cooperatives provide electric service to more than 1 million Kentuckians.

EKPC's role is to provide electric power to its 16 owner-members. EKPC owns and operates four major power plants totaling nearly 3,000 megawatts in capacity, as well as more than 2,800 miles of high-voltage transmission lines. EKPC has provided this service for more than 75 years.

EKPC and each of its 16 owner-member cooperatives is owned and democratically governed by the people who use their energy and services. All are not-for-profit organizations.

Together, EKPC and its 16 owner-member cooperatives are known as Kentucky's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative is owned and governed by 16 other Kentucky electrical cooperatives. We call these our member cooperatives. Together, these 16 co-ops distribute power to more than 1 million Kentuckians in 87 counties.

Each of the member co-ops serves a certain geographical region. Many have names that tell, more-or-less, where they're based or which area they cover, such as Shelby Energy, based in Shelby County, or Taylor County RECC, based in Taylor County. All 16 co-ops are locally operated, not-for-profit companies that are themselves owned by the people and businesses they serve.

EKPC generates the electric power that each of these 16 owner-members distributes locally. EKPC and its owner-members remain focused on providing electricity as affordably and reliably as possible, the same as we did 75 years ago when EKPC began.

75 Years of Making Lives Better With Affordable, Reliable Electricity

Since it was founded in 1941, EKPC’s job has been to provide affordable, reliable electricity to its owner-member cooperatives. Electric cooperatives nationwide played a crucial role in revolutionizing the way rural Americans live, work and play.

During the Great Depression, only one in 10 rural homes had electricity. Farmers welcomed the first power lines because they knew that having electricity would dramatically improve the quality of their lives.

On July 7, 1941, the owner-member cooperatives formed the not-for-profit cooperative that became EKPC. Based in Winchester, EKPC today generates and transmits power to 16 owner-member cooperatives.

EKPC operates generating plants in Clark, Mason and Pulaski counties and renewable energy plants in Boone, Greenup, Hardin, Laurel, Pendleton and Mason counties. Today, EKPC generates more green power than any other utility in Kentucky at six plants that are fueled by methane collected from landfills. In fact, EKPC was the first utility in Kentucky to generate green power.

Our 16 owner-member cooperatives are owned by the people and businesses they serve. Likewise, EKPC is owned by the 16 co-ops it serves. (That’s why EKPC is sometimes referred to as a “cooperative of cooperatives.”) As a result, EKPC and its owner-members remain focused on providing electricity as affordably and reliably as possible, the same as they did 70 years ago.