Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC) is a cooperative organized as a not-for-profit utility.  It does not sell stock and is not under pressure to earn profits for absentee stockholders.

If MVEC collects more money than it needs to operate, it reinvests those margins into the system—keeping its need to borrow high-interest capital to a minimum.  The board of directors determines when those margins are refunded – in the form of patronage dividends—to the people who paid for the electricity in the year the margin occurred.

Since cooperative rates are set by those who pay them, many states find no need to regulate those rates.

Electric cooperatives serve many rural, less-densely populated areas compared to other utilities.  Providing electric service in these areas tends to be more difficult and costly than in urban areas.

Anyone who buys electricity from Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative is a member; all members share ownership of the Cooperative and have a voice in its operation.

Each member has one vote in the election of the Cooperative’s board of directors and in any other decisions brought up at the Cooperative’s annual meeting (Click here for time & place).

Directors of the Cooperative are also members, who serve without salary, except for a per diem and expenses to cover their out-of-pocket costs in serving the Cooperative.  The board of directors hires a CEO to take charge of operating the Cooperative for the benefit of its members.