Your Cooperative

Powering Our Communities Since 1939

For more than 85 years, Southwestern Electric Cooperative, Inc. has proudly delivered safe, reliable, and affordable electric service to the homes, farms, businesses, and communities we serve throughout southwestern Illinois. Headquartered in Greenville, Illinois, we are more than an electric utility. We are a member-owned cooperative dedicated to improving the quality of life for the people and communities we serve.

Unlike investor-owned utilities, Southwestern Electric Cooperative is a not-for-profit electric cooperative. That means every decision we make is guided by what is best for our member-owners, not by generating profits for outside investors or shareholders. Our focus is on providing dependable electric service, investing in our electric system, and delivering exceptional value to the members who own the cooperative.

Today, Southwestern Electric provides electric service to approximately 25,000 members across a diverse and growing service territory that includes portions of Bond, Clay, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Montgomery, Shelby, and St. Clair Counties. From rural farms and small communities to local businesses and growing industries, we are proud to serve the people and places that make Southwestern Illinois home.

Explore our service territory and see where Southwestern Electric serves:

Southwestern Service Territory

Being a member of Southwestern Electric Cooperative means more than receiving electric service. Membership comes with a voice, a stake in the cooperative, and a connection to the communities we serve.

The way we operate is guided by the Seven Cooperative Principles, a set of internationally recognized principles that provide the foundation for cooperative organizations around the world. These principles shape how members participate, how the cooperative is governed, how value is returned to members, and how we engage with our communities.

Discover what makes the cooperative model different and what your membership means.

Southwestern Electric Cooperative belongs to the people it serves. Every member is also an owner, and every owner has an equal voice in the cooperative through the election of the Board of Directors.

Our success is measured not by profits, but by the value we provide to our members through reliable service, responsible stewardship, and long-term investments in the electric system.

Southwestern Electric Cooperative is governed by a locally elected Board of Directors made up of cooperative members who live within the communities we serve. Directors are elected by the membership to represent the interests of all member-owners and provide strategic leadership for the cooperative.

The Board is responsible for establishing policies, setting the cooperative's long-term direction, ensuring financial responsibility, and overseeing the Chief Executive Officer. Their role is to make decisions that support the cooperative's mission while ensuring reliable electric service, sound financial management, and the continued success of the cooperative for future generations.

Learn more about your elected directors or contact the Board through our Board of Directors page.

Your Board of Directors

One of the unique benefits of being a member-owner of an electric cooperative is the opportunity to receive capital credits.

Because Southwestern Electric operates on a not-for-profit basis, any revenue remaining after operating expenses and necessary investments is not paid to outside shareholders. Instead, these margins are allocated to members as capital credits in proportion to the amount of electricity each member purchased during the year.

As the cooperative's financial condition permits, the Board of Directors authorizes the retirement and return of these capital credits to members. It is one of the many ways membership in a cooperative is different from receiving service from a traditional utility.

To learn more about the cooperative's financial stewardship or capital credit, view our Financial Information and Capital Credit pages.

Capital Credits