Whats the big deal about being non-profit?
Electric cooperatives developed because many citizens, who did not have access to electricity in the 1930s, decided to form their own companies to acquire power. Investor-owned power companies said they couldn’t make a profit in areas with a small number of consumers per mile of expensive power line. The cooperative business structure already was a well-established part of the American free enterprise system for providing services that were too big for individuals to do alone. Non-profit cooperatives were a natural fit for distributing electricity in areas where making a profit would be difficult.
