| Craighead Electric Cooperative | |
| Founded: | 1937 |
| Industry: | Rural electrical cooperative |
| Hq Location City: | Jonesboro, AR |
| Num Employees: | 110 |
Craighead Electric Cooperative is a member-owned not-for-profit rural electric utility cooperative headquartered in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States with district offices in Paragould, and Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.[1] A not-for-profit electric cooperative differs from a for profit investor owned electric company in a number of ways including capital credit refunds. For example, the cooperative in 2006 refunded $679,728 for the years 1976 and 1977.[2]
The Cooperative was organized in 1937 and the first 75miles of power lines[3] were energized in November 1938. In 1942 the cooperative pooled its resources with the other sixteen Arkansas power cooperatives to form a statewide association, Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc., (AECI). In 1949, it became a member of the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation.[4]
The Cooperative serves portions of seven counties in the state of Arkansas, in a territory generally north and east of Jonesboro: Craighead, Crittenden, Greene, Independence, Lawrence, Poinsett, and Randolph.
The Cooperative has more than 4800miles of distribution lines, 18 substations, and services 30,000 meters. In 2009, a winter storm damaged roughly 8,000 of the cooperative's utility poles causing power outages to 25,000 customers.