Western Cooperative Electric Association was formed in 1945 by a group of friends and neighbors to bring electricity to their homes and businesses across eight counties in Northwest Kansas: Ellis, Gove, Graham, Ness, Rooks, Rush, Trego, and Sheridan. With the Aquila purchase in 2007, Western's service territory was expanded to include five additional counties: Osborne, Russell, Barton, Lincoln, and Ellsworth. Today, Western serves more than 12,000 meters, maintains approximately 4,000 miles of line, and employs over 50 people dedicated to serving you. With headquarters located in WaKeeney and district locations in Olmitz, Plainville, and Ellsworth, Western provides its consumer-owners with reliable electricity and responsive service at an affordable price. Margins generated from operations are held for a limited time for building, maintaining, and repairing the system before being returned to the consumer-owners.
For the calendar year ending 2018, Western consumer-members used 188.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity, worth $38.2 million. Over 74 years and after all expenditures had been made to build and maintain an ever-growing system, Western's consumer-members have built up approximately $39.1 million worth of equity. $24 million of equity has been returned, in cash, back to Western's consumer members!
Western is proud to bring power to Kansas, and we look forward to serving you.
