Powering Communities... Power Lives
People's Energy Cooperative was founded in 1936 thanks to a small group of people who organized an electric cooperative to serve rural Olmsted County. The incorporators, Harold Caulfield of Byron; Herbert C. Blumentrit of Chester; R.E. Richardson of Eyota; Louis Hammel of Eyota; and A.H. Johnson of Viola; named it People's Cooperative Power Association of Olmsted County. While our name has changed, our commitment to providing power according to the Cooperative Principles hasn't.
Today, People's Energy Cooperative is a member-owned, distribution electric cooperative delivering retail electric power to over 20,000 members in Olmsted, Dodge, Fillmore, Mower, Wabasha, and Winona Counties.
We are governed by a member-elected board of directors comprised of member-consumers who serve three-year terms. We are staffed by 65 professionals who stand ready to deliver on our mission of providing reliable electricity, superior service, and innovative energy solutions at fair and reasonable prices.
Our Power Providers
As an electric distribution cooperative, we do not generate the power we sell except for the energy generated by the three solar arrays we either own or have an interest in. We purchase our power from two generation and transmission companies. Our primary power provider is Dairyland Power Cooperative in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and the other is Interstate Power and Light, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy, based in Madison, Wisconsin.
For more information on our power provider's energy mix, click on the links below.
Dairyland Power Cooperative Energy Resources
People's Energy purchases power from Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC), a generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. Dairyland provides wholesale electricity to 24 member distribution cooperatives and 15 municipal utilities in four states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois).