Recently, one of our newer employees asked me what makes electric co-ops different from other types of utilities. This month, I thought I’d share a few of the things I told her.

Because we’re a co-op, we operate a little differently than other utilities. Dubois REC’s decisions are made locally by directors who are members and who also live right here in our community. Everyone who pays to receive electricity from the co-op is a member.

When you pay your electric bill each month, your money stays here — to pay for the electricity used, or to make improvements to our local system to strengthen service reliability. The money you pay the co-op doesn’t line the pockets of shareholders five states away. We’re a co-op, and we exist to provide a service to you, our local members.

You may notice that throughout the year, we schedule opportunities for you to attend co-op events, such as our annual meeting, safety demonstrations and our community recycle event, which provide opportunites for us to interact with you and hear from you. Our success lies in your satisfaction, which is why we offer these events to engage and listen to what you have to say. Because you’re part of an electric cooperative, you can count on our team to maintain local jobs, at-cost electricity and first-class service, no matter what the economy –– and supply chain issues — throw at us. Dubois REC is striving to keep our costs as low as possible so we can keep more money in your pocket. We want to help you maximize the value you can get from our services and offerings. For example, we can help you save on energy bills through our HVAC and water heating rebates and incentives. We also offer rebates for electric lawn equipment.

Please know that you –– the members of Dubois REC –– are at the heart of everything we do. We exist to serve you and provide the quality, reliable, friendly service you expect and deserve. While we’ve grown over the years, we’re still driven by the same guiding principles to serve our community.