It was an overcast Friday at the Fairfield Electric Co-op building in Blythewood. Captain Co-op and his new  assistant, Volt the electric eel, were monitoring the weather conditions in the Western part of Fairfield County. 

 "It looks like severe thunderstorms over Lake Monticello near the VC Summer Nuclear Plant," said Volt.  

"Yes," said Captain Co-op, "these are the perfect weather conditions for a tornado." 

Captain Co-op was the head lineman over operations for the entire cooperative, covering 5 counties, servicing 30,000+ members. 

"We must keep an eye on this in case of a tornado," said Captain Co-op looking concerned.  "Severe weather could mean downed power lines and outages." 

"I've only been on the job four weeks," said Volt, "but I've seen so much of what the co-op does to provide electric services to the community. My job at my uncle's Eel-ectric Lights and Fans was not as exciting as my job at the co-op. What a cool place!  So who owns the co-op?" inquired Volt. 

"The members own the co-op, Volt," replied Captain Co-op.

"Really," asked Volt.

"Yep, that's right," he replied.

Co-op is short for cooperative.  A cooperative is an independent association of individuals who unite to meet their needs and aspirations through a jointly-owed, democratically-governed enterprise.  The need for the community is electricity.  There is use of a shared resource(electricity), shared expenses for purchasing, distributing and maintaining the resource and shared profit as capital credits for any excess funds. S.C. co-ops have connected communities in this way since their inception back in the 1930s. Before that time, rural areas were pretty much in the dark, except for candles and lanterns.

"Did you know that the cooperative does more than just provide electric services?  I'm scheduled to install a new hot water heater for one of our new customers at their brand new farm in Chester County on Monday. As one of our new cooperative members, they will receive a free hot water heater unit with our H2O Select Program."

"Wow! That is so kind and helpful," said Volt.

"We also have youth programs for the next generation of co-op landowners.  We award scholarships annually for higher education and we sponsor state and Congressional visits, so that the co-op is supported and protected by lawmakers," added Captain Co-op.

"People in rural communities were given the chance under President Roosevelt to invest in their communities by forming cooperatives to serve their energy needs.  The co-op exists solely to serve the community and members have joint ownership," explained Captain Co-op.  

"You know, I naturally generate electricity," said Volt "because I'm an electric eel and we use our unique ability to catch prey, but it's not enough to power a home. Does the cooperative provide electricity that is generated via any carbon-free processes?"

"We sure do provide that option," smiled Captain Co-op, co-op members can purchase a power block on one of our solar panels at our Winnsboro location through our 

Solar Community program."

EEEERRRRR   EEERRRR   EEERRRR (sirens)

"Yikes! What's that!" shrieked Volt.

"That's the alarm for a power outage in the service area. Let's check the map.  Looks like a tornado touchdown in western Fairfield, as expected.  We will wait for the okay, and head out to assess the damage.  We should start packing our gear," said Captain Co-op.

Captain Co-op and Volt headed down the highway in their bucket truck.  Volt was excited, yet a little afraid.