CHELCO will award three one-time scholarships of $1,000 in April. The scholarship is designed to help members or their dependents with college expenses. Applicants must be a CHELCO member, spouse or dependent of a member and must live on CHELCO lines.

Applications are available now, and the application deadline is Feb. 15, 2017. The applicants will be reviewed by judges from area colleges and universities for academic excellence, participation in community and school activities as well as individual need. Select applicants will then be interviewed for the final step of the process. Graduating high school seniors, current college students as well as adults returning to college are eligible to apply.

“CHELCO is supportive of its members through many sponsorships and donations to organizations that build our community,” said Vice President of Member Services, Steve Wolfrom. “We believe higher education for local students is a way of giving back to our community and improving the quality of life for members.” 

CHELCO is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative employing more than 140 people and serving more than 48,000 accounts in Walton, Okaloosa, Holmes and Santa Rosa counties in the panhandle of Florida. The 

cooperative owns and maintains 3,956 miles of line. About 2,830 miles are overhead lines and 1,126 are underground.

CHELCO's official name is Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, which is named after the river and bay that are prominent features of the area.

Our  headquarters is in DeFuniak Springs, and we have area offices.

OUR VISION: To continuously promote the quality of life for our members, employees and communities within the scope of our core business.

OUR MISSION: To safely provide quality services and products at competitive value while adhering to the cooperative principles.

CHELCO History

Although most cities had electricity by the mid-1930s, rural Americans were still in the dark. The high cost of building electric distribution lines to serve sparsely populated rural areas was thought to be uneconomical.
Then in 1940, with the support of the federal Rural Electrification Administration's oversight and low-interest loans, the people of northwest Florida decided to band together to form a member-owned, not-for-profit utility that would benefit its members. The result was Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO).
Later that same year, CHELCO members met with 10 other electric cooperatives and formed Alabama Electric Cooperative (now PowerSouth Energy Cooperative), a generation and transmission cooperative established to generate the electricity needed by its member co-ops.

Today, CHELCO is headquartered in DeFuniak Springs, and our service territory encompasses mainly Walton and Okaloosa counties, in addition to portions of western Holmes and eastern Santa Rosa counties. We have six area offices to serve your needs.

Membership has its privileges

There are more than 900 electric cooperatives in the U.S. that serve 42 million members. CHELCO serves more than 49,000 of those members.

We’re all in this together. You are a member of CHELCO – not a customer. And that means you have a voice when it comes to the way we do business. Each spring, you have the option to vote for your board of trustees. These trustees play a key role in making important decisions for our co-op, which is why members’ voices must be heard.

We’re local. It’s likely that you know an employee of CHELCO. Our employees – your friends and neighbors – share the same concerns for our community that you do.

We’re not-for-profit. CHELCO doesn’t offer profits to investors—we return money over and above operating costs to you, our members, based on electricity consumption. Annually, electric co-ops nationwide return millions of dollars to members through this capital credits process. At CHELCO we returned $2,011,958 in 2014.

We’re here for you. At CHELCO, our mission is to provide you with safe, reliable, and affordable electricity. We care about our members’ quality of life, which is why our employees are continuously finding innovative ways to improve our service.