Rural electric cooperative (cooperatively-owned electric utility)
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- A customer-owned electric utility that was created to transmit and distribute power in rural areas. Rural electric cooperatives benefit from below-market financing from the Rural Utilities Service (formerly the Rural Electrification Administration), as well as low-cost power from federal hydroelectric projects. In addition, most do not pay state or federal income taxes. Rates for rural electric cooperatives typically are set by a board of directors elected from among the cooperative's members. Today, rural electric cooperatives serve about 11 percent of the nation's electric customers.
- BUDS, Cooperative electric utility, direct access, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Electric power industry, Investor owned utility (IOU), Market-based rates, Municipal utility (municipally-owned electric system), Municipalization, Non-utility generators (NUG\'s), Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), Unbundling (functional unbundling), Utility, Wholesale customers, Wholesale wheeling