“I wanted to be at my parents’ house when electricity came. It was in 1940. We’d all go around flipping the switch to make sure it hadn’t come on yet. We didn’t want to miss it. When they finally came on, the lights just barely glowed. I remember my mother smiling. When they came on full, tears started to run down her cheeks.”
Clyde T. Ellis
KEC is the Kansas statewide service organization for 26 electric distribution cooperatives and three generation and transmission cooperatives. Formed on Aug. 18, 1941, and headquartered in Topeka, KEC represents the interests of, and provides needed services and programs to, the electric co-ops that serve Kansans. The banding together into one statewide association provides greater efficiency and economy of operations for all the distribution cooperatives, regardless of size.
Through KEC, the individual co-ops share in the advantage of a larger utility operation, but maintain control and ownership at the local level. A 29-member board of trustees, one trustee representative from each of the KEC member systems, guides the association. The KEC Board of Trustees meets six times annually.
KEC provides extensive legislative and regulatory advocacy at the state and national levels, education, public relations, safety/loss control, legal support and a large selection of communication services including a statewide consumer magazine, news releases, advertising, and creative services. KEC develops and coordinates training and safety programs for electric cooperative employees and directors. Other specialized services include youth programs, safety device inspections, coordination with regulatory agencies’ policies and procedures, and other services more efficiently done on a statewide, rather than a local, basis. A Touchstone Energy Regional Member, KEC is the united service representative for its members.
KEC functions for the mutual benefit of its members to promote rural electrification and foster the principles on which electric cooperatives were founded.