West Central Electric Cooperative was incorporated 50 years ago, in November of 1949, to bring electrical power to the more sparsely populated areas of Central South Dakota. Before the Cooperative was formed, people living in these isolated areas could not utilize the convenience of the modern-day electrical appliances they saw in magazines and catalogs. Only if they went to town could they see how they operated. To some of the people living in these areas this was unacceptable. Because the rural areas would not return a profit for a commercial power company, the idea of forming a cooperative was born.
Today, West Central Electric Cooperative, Inc. carries on the tradition of providing affordable electrical power to even the more remote areas, with the addition of the most modern equipment available to provide reliability. West Central serves electrical power to over 3,660 members located in nine towns throughout five counties in the central part of South Dakota. The Cooperative maintains approximately 3,573 miles of line in an area of more than 7,000 square miles, much of which is to serve developments outside city limits, farm houses, barns and wells.
Rural electric cooperatives, like West Central Electric, are non-profit, consumer-owned utilities that provide central station electric service to predominantly rural areas.
There are two types of electric cooperatives:
Distribution cooperatives, like West Central Electric, provide electric service to the end consumer. They are owned and controlled by the members/consumers. Distribution cooperatives operate on a non-profit basis.
Generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) are the other kind of rural electric cooperative. G&Ts operate the generating plants and electric transmission facilities that provide bulk power to distribution cooperatives. Rushmore Electric, Rapid City, SD is the G&T serving WCEC. West Central Electric owns its transmission lines and substations. Rushmore Electric is owned and controlled by eight western South Dakota co-ops.
During daily operations, an electric cooperative conducts business similar to any other electric utility. The difference lies in its ownership and how the wishes of these owners are carried out. Cooperatives are owned and controlled by the people they serve.
The Rural Utility Services (RUS) is a federal credit agency within the Department of Agriculture which provides credit and other assistance to rural electric cooperatives.
Rural electric cooperatives like West Central Electric are subject to the same taxes as any other business — including state and local taxes, through property taxes, sales tax, business franchise taxes, etc. They also are required by the Internal Revenue Service to pay tax on income from any unrelated business activity. However, due to their non-profit status, they do not pay state and federal income taxes.
Some people are under the false impression that your electric cooperative -as a non-profit corporation- does not pay taxes.
The following breakdown shows the amount West Central Electric paid in property tax in April and gross revenue paid in August to each county in 2000:
| COUNTY |
GROSS TAX |
PROPERTY TAX |
TOTAL |
| Haakon |
$42,742.47 |
$3,178.89 |
$45,921.36 |
| Jackson |
$26,155.95 |
$328.06 |
$26,484.01 |
| Jones |
$26,461.34 |
$13,253.34 |
$86,096.06 |
| Lyman |
$82,149.43 |
$3,946.63 |
$85,483.32 |
| Mellette |
$234.08 |
0 |
$234.08 |
| Stanley |
$17,176.37 |
$49.99 |
$17,226.36 |
| Total Gross and Property Taxes Paid in 2004 |
$175,961.87 |
West Central Electric, along with other cooperatives, are members in Basin Electric Power Cooperative, headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. Basin is our wholesale power supplier and the nation’s largest generation and transmission cooperative serving an eight state area in the midwest.
Through this joint ownership of Basin Electric, West Central Electric is a co-owner of four power plants, including three coal-fired and one oil-fired facility. The combined electric generating capacity of the units is 3,304 megawatts.
Basin Electric provides approximately 70 percent of our power requirements; the remainder is purchased from the Western Area Power Administration, the marketing agency for the federally-owned hydroelectric facilities in this region.
All our power is transmitted to us through Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative, a jointly-owed generation and transmission cooperative based in Rapid City, South Dakota. Thanks to deliberate planning and careful management, Basin Electric and Rushmore Electric ensure West Central Electric members a reliable, economical supply of energy - now and in the future.
West Central Electric’s commitment to you is to provide the most reliable power supply at the most economical cost. Key to this strategy is a redundancy of facilities and ability to offer fast, efficient service from a variety of sources.
Electric service is provided by many distribution circuits within our service area. Each circuit is designed to tie with other circuits so, should the need arise, power is available from an adjoining circuit.
We offer electric service at a variety of standard voltages, both single phase and three phase, to meet the requirements of your project.
Our office, at 204 Main Street in Murdo, SD is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. You are welcome to stop in during those hours should you have any inquiries about your electric service or bill.
We are closed in observance of New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday, and Christmas Day.
Our telephone numbers are (605) 669-2472 or 800-242-9232 and are answered 24-hours a day, seven days a week. You may call anytime to report an outage or emergency.
We may also be reached by e-mail at
wcec@wce.coop
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