Mountain Electric Cooperative, Inc. (MEC) is a member owned electric cooperative located in northeast Tennessee and northwest North Carolina. Its corporate office is located in Mountain City, TN, with a district office in Newland, NC, and a branch office in Roan Mountain, TN. The cooperative was formed on April 1, 1941 by area farmers and residents. MEC distributes electricity, generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, to over 33,600 residential and business members in a 700 square mile service area.

Mission Statement

Mountain Electric Cooperative will strive to fulfill our member’s needs for affordable electricity, utility related services, and community support.

Mountain Electric Cooperative is a non-profit electric cooperative, chartered under the laws of Tennessee to distribute electric energy to the people living in its service area.
The members own and control it through an elected Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is composed of 8 members, one elected from each of the districts – Three from Johnson County, three from Avery County and two from Roan Mountain. The board members are also members of the cooperative.

Each August there are district meetings held for the members of that district to vote for the candidate of their choice.  Nominations are made by a signed petition (10 members required on petition). The voting is conducted by written ballot, and trustees are elected to serve three-year terms.

The board is the policy making and supervisory body for MEC. It sees that the cooperative is run properly and to the best interest of all members and that the policies agreed upon are carried out. The board employs a General Manager to oversee the cooperative’s day-to-day operations. MEC’s current general manager is Joe Thacker.

History

In the early 1900s, electricity was only available to large urban areas.  As communities grew, a few small plants were put into service, but generally excluded the rural population.  In July 1912, the Roan Creek Electric Light and Power Co. was formed by citizens of Johnson County, Tennessee to provide electric power to customers in and around Mountain City, Tennessee, from a small hydro plant.  Mr. W. W. Worley of Johnson County later purchased the plant about the same time other small electric systems were being built in the area.  The Edgar Tufts Memorial Association of Banner Elk, NC built a small hydro plant on the Elk River and furnished power to Grace Hospital, Lees McRae College, and a home for children.  Other plants were put in service in Linville, Crossnore, and Elk Park, NC.  These plants provided a needed service, but most were limited to a few hours of operation per day.

In 1927, the East Tennessee Light & Power Co. (“ETL&P”) purchased the Roan Creek power plant and included Johnson County in its service area.  This company had a franchise to serve Johnson and Carter Counties and part of Avery County, including Newland, NC, but did not construct power lines in the rural areas, leaving many rural residents without electricity.

Then, on April 1, 1941, a small group of farmers and small town residents banned together to form a legally incorporated cooperative, Mountain Electric Cooperative, for the purpose of providing needed electric service to the local rural area.

In 1945, the cooperative purchased the ETL&P.  During the same year, the cooperative entered into an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (“TVA”) for the purchase of wholesale power to be generated and delivered to the cooperative’s service area.  As the cooperative grew, other small power companies were purchased. In 1947, the Banner Elk power system of Banner Elk, NC owned by the Edgar Tufts Memorial was purchased. In 1949, the Linville Valley Light and Power Co. of Crossnore, NC was purchased. By the end of 1949, Mountain Electric served 4,812 members and provided electricity to its entire service area, which includes primarily Johnson and Carter Counties in Tennessee and Avery County, North Carolina. Small portions of Watauga, Burke, Mitchell and Unicoi counties are also served by the cooperative.  At that time, the cooperative implemented the area coverage program that made electric service available to any cooperative member at no extra cost. Under this program, members in remote rural areas would receive electric service at the same cost as members who lived next to an existing line.  This opened the door to electric service for everybody in the area.

Through the years, the cooperative has been concerned with improving the quality of life for the people in the communities it serves.  The cooperative is actively involved in many programs to do this, including; promoting the area’s resources for economical development, assist in recruiting businesses to the area, providing technical assistance to residential and businesses for improving energy efficiency, participating in a wide range of youth educational programs, providing a home surge protection program and providing a bill round-up program to help raise money to benefit charities and assist those in need in the area.

The latest major project was a power-line carrier Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system that was completed in late 2009.

An annual educational and membership meeting is held in September each year.  This annual meeting provides members information about the condition of the cooperative.  The cooperative currently serves approximately 33,531 members. Total Assets are approximately valued at $87,153,978.  The cooperative owns and operates over 2,264 miles of distribution line and over 24 miles of transmission 69 kV lines.  The service area population is roughly 45,000 and covers a 700 square mile service area. The cooperative employs 81 full-time employees located at three offices, the headquarters in Mountain City, TN, a district office in Newland, NC and a small branch office in Roan Mountain, TN.