REA history

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). A year later, Congress gave the agency the money and power needed to promote rural electrification by providing low-cost loans to build transmission and generation facilities.

Rural cooperatives formed rapidly to take advantage of the favorable financing. Farm by farm, village by village, the lights went on across rural Missouri and rural America. Eventually, Associated’s major generation facilities, built primarily during the 1960s and 1970s, were financed with help from the REA.

The electrification of rural America often is described as the single most dramatic event to touch the daily lives of this country’s farming families. It helped make this nation’s agriculture industry the most productive in the world and enabled the rural economy to grow in even more unexpected ways.

Learn more about America's electric cooperatives at www.electric.coop.

1930s through 1950s: The beginning

By the mid-1930s, just 6.4% of the farms in Missouri had electricity. Rural Americans simply didn't have the economic clout to obtain the one commodity that, more than anything else, could increase production and improve the quality of their lives – electricity.

1935: To encourage rural development, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating Rural Electrification Administration (REA).

1936: Congress passes the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

1941-1952: Associated’s six G&T owners are created: KAMO Power, Sho-Me Power Electric Cooperative, M&A Electric Power Cooperative, Northeast Missouri Electric Power Cooperative, Central Electric Power Cooperative and NW Electric Power Cooperative Inc.

The 1960s: Associated formed to supply power to members

The 1960s were a decade of birth, establishment and growth for Associated and rural power supply.

1961: Fifteen incorporators sign articles of incorporation to create Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. 

1962: After approval from the REA and the Department of the Interior, Associated officially begins operations.

1965: Associated builds its first transmission line, a 1.5-mile tie line between M&A Electric Power Cooperative and Union Electric. 

1966: Associated’s first power plant, Thomas Hill Unit 1, begins operations.

The 1970s: Negotiations reap highest ever REA loan

The decade of the '70s was challenging due to energy usage growth, changing government regulations, increasing inflation and high interest costs.

1972: New Madrid Power Plant's first unit goes online. Unit 2 follows in 1977.

1979: Associated negotiates with REA for the largest loan guarantee in the history of the rural electrification program: $1.4 billion to pay for Thomas Hill Unit 3; Black Fox Nuclear Project; new mining operations; and to offset double-digit interest rates in the late 1970s.

The 1980s: Associated expands mines, reduces coal costs

Expansion at Thomas Hill Energy Center dominated the scene during the 1980s as Associated brought on its fifth generating unit and modernized a newly purchased coal mine. Construction efforts during the decade were the largest in the cooperative's operating history.

1982: Thomas Hill Unit 3 begins operations.

1989: Associated forms its Clean Air Act contingency fund to help pay for changes at its power plants required by the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. 

The 1990s: Natural gas diversifies plant operations

National news of budget cuts, layoffs and mergers dominated industry reports. Even rural electric cooperatives, once insulated from such pressures, felt the threat of competition. Strengthening its competitive position became a priority for Associated.

1995: The conversion to low-sulfur coal at both Thomas Hill and New Madrid power plants is completed, reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 90% and allowing Associated to implement an average overall rate reduction of 17%.

1996: Associated announces a partnership to construct gas-based power generation facility St. Francis Power Plant. 

1999: The first units of a 1,633-megawatts construction phase of gas-based generation come online to meet members’ peak demand needs. Intermediate and peaking power plants that begin operations in the next four years are Essex and Nodaway power plants, St. Francis, Chouteau Power Plant and Holden Power Plant.

The 2000s: Wind blows into generation resource mix

The 2000s brought continued diversification of Associated's generation mix, new emissions controls and environmental projects, positively leading to carbon emissions declines and the first utility-scale wind farm built in Missouri.

2000-2002: Selective catalytic reduction equipment, designed to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by about 93%, on New Madrid Unit 1 and 2 become operational.

2005: Associated purchases Dell Power Plant, a combined-cycle natural gas-based power plant in Dell, Ark.

2006: Associated was named “2006 Wind Co-op of the Year” for helping make Missouri’s first utility-scale wind farms a reality. 

2007: Associated receives two national awards for its innovative reclamation of the Bee Veer Mine in Macon County, Mo.

2008: $424 million construction project installs selective catalytic reduction equipment at Thomas Hill Energy Center, enabling a 90% systemwide reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by Jan. 1, 2009, the Clean Air Interstate Rule deadline.

The 2010s: Associated continues focus on business strategy, innovation

Facing another economic downturn, which touches nearly all of its members, Associated continued to follow its five-point business strategy, seek innovative ways to reduce operational and environmental costs and keep electricity affordable and reliable for members.

2011: Chouteau 2, a combined-cycle natural gas unit in Pryor, Okla., goes online.

2012: Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm, in Kansas, moves into full commercial operation. 

2015: The Osage County wind farm in Oklahoma comes online, bringing Associated's contracted wind energy capacity to 750 MW.

2016: Associated board of directors hires David J. Tudor as the cooperative's CEO and general manager. 

The 2020s: Ensuring reliability

Energy industry trends, external pressures and new all-time peak demand records lead Associated to invest in generation and transmission projects to secure the reliability of members' power supply.

2020: Clear Creek wind energy project comes online, followed by the White Cloud wind project. This brings Associated's contracted wind energy to 1,240 MW.

2021-2022: A balanced generation portfolio enables the cooperative to provide reliable power to members during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, Winter Storm Elliott in 2022 and a summer 2022 heatwave affecting the midsection of the country.

2022: Board of directors authorizes development of new natural gas generation with a goal to protect members' reliable power supply.

2023: CEO and General Manager David Tudor makes member-owners' voices heard when he testifies on energy reliability in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

2024: Ground is broken on Ripley Energy Center in Oklahoma, the first of two new natural gas-fired, simple-cycle energy centers to meet peak member demand needs.