Happy birthday to us!

Hap­py anniver­sary! York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive turns 75 this year—thanks to you and, ini­tial­ly, 553 char­ter mem­bers.

YEC was found­ed in March 1941 by a group of farm­ers and busi­ness­men who real­ized that the only way to bring elec­tric pow­er to rur­al York Coun­ty was to do it them­selves. Our first Board of Trustees began an endeav­or that would change life here for the bet­ter, for­ev­er.

Today, YEC also serves parts of Chero­kee, Chester and Lan­cast­er coun­ties, includ­ing rur­al areas and thriv­ing sub­ur­ban com­mu­ni­ties. We fos­ter eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment to attract com­mer­cial and indus­tri­al accounts that bring good jobs here, too.

Change/no change

One thing has not changed: Oper­at­ing on a not-for-prof­it basis makes it pos­si­ble to hold down mem­bers’ cost of ser­vice. YEC aver­ages only 13.4 con­sumers per mile of line while for-prof­it, investor-owned util­i­ties and munic­i­pal util­i­ties serve 34 and 62 con­sumers per mile, respec­tive­ly. Despite this, we remain com­pet­i­tive on rates.

It’s a cred­it to your mem­ber-elect­ed board that YEC’s rates have increased less than the aver­age cost of liv­ing since 2008. In fact, most co-op mem­bers will see a slight over­all rate reduc­tion as we mod­i­fy our rates dur­ing 2016. We’ll keep you post­ed as adjust­ments are intro­duced.

A milestone, put in perspective

In any his­to­ry, per­spec­tive is valu­able. In the near future, YEC will hit a mile­stone of serv­ing more than 50,000 accounts. We now have over 3,663 miles of line. Our mem­ber­ship has grown almost 100-fold since Decem­ber 1941, when YEC sup­plied pow­er to 502 homes and busi­ness­es along 189 miles of line.

Mem­bers’ use of elec­tric­i­ty has grown, too. Ear­ly YEC mem­bers, we know anec­do­tal­ly, used lit­tle power—electricity was main­ly for light­ing. But since 1973, when YEC began track­ing mem­bers’ month­ly use, the increase has been dra­mat­ic: The ’73 aver­age stood at 878 kilo­watt-hours (kWh) per month. Last year, it topped 1,300 kWh.

What YEC is made of

Yet co-op pow­er con­tin­ues to be an excel­lent val­ue. Con­sid­er this: The aver­age dai­ly cost of res­i­den­tial co-op ser­vice— about $4.85—costs less than a McDon­ald’s Big Mac meal, at about $6.20, tax includ­ed.

To para­phrase McDon­ald’s cur­rent slo­gan, “What we’re made of” at YEC is ser­vice. That key ingre­di­ent has­n’t changed for 75 years. Today, our “prod­uct” is sea­soned with integri­ty, account­abil­i­ty, reli­a­bil­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty commitment—the Touch­stone Ener­gy Coop­er­a­tives’ values—but it’s still served up not-for-prof­it style, often with a side order of cap­i­tal cred­its. (We will return $1,200,000, the largest amount in our his­to­ry, to mem­bers this year.)

Our orig­i­nal board would­n’t rec­og­nize today’s super-sized co-op, but they would appre­ci­ate what their suc­ces­sors, today’s trustees, have accom­plished: Our rates remain the low­est of any co-op’s in the state. Now, that’s some­thing to cel­e­brate!

Relat­ed Top­ics:
YEC Cel­e­brates 50,000th Mem­ber