About CEC

Electric cooperatives began to crop up nationwide after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) into law in 1935. The REA provided low-interest loans to cooperatives in order to electrify rural America.

Genevieve Electric Cooperative was formed in 1941 under the direction of the REA to extend power lines to rural southeastern Missouri. In 1945, at the end of World War II, the first 202 miles of line were energized, and Genevieve Electric started active operation as a rural electric cooperative.

Later that same year, Genevieve Electric Cooperative acquired the assets of Missouri General Utilities Company located in Perry, Ste. Genevieve, eastern St. Francois, and northern Cape Girardeau counties.

With the acquisition of Missouri General Utilities, Genevieve Electric Cooperative began serving the cities of Ste. Genevieve and Perryville, each having a population of more than 1,500 customers. Since cooperatives are prohibited from serving any municipality with a population exceeding 1,500, it was necessary to reorganize Genevieve Electric Cooperative.

To accomplish this reorganization, Citizens Electric Corporation was organized, incorporated and the charter was issued on Nov. 17, 1947.

Citizens Electric is a not-for-profit corporation operating as an electric cooperative, which means its customers are member/owners. They build equity (capital credits) in the corporation through their patronage. Capital credits are allocated to members whenever revenues exceed operating expenses. Capital credits are refunded at the discretion of the board according to the corporation's financial condition.

Ten members are elected to serve on the Board of Directors in order to govern the corporation.

Our lobby hours are 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., Drive-Thru 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (CST) Monday-Friday, and we are located at 1500 Rand Ave. in Perryville, Missouri.  Our mailing address is:  P.O. Box 368, Perryville, MO 63775.

For after-hours emergencies, call 877-876-3511.

Capital credit refunds are one of the differences between a not-for-profit cooperative and an investor-owned utility. If we collect more than we need, we return it to our members!

Rates are designed to recover the costs of purchasing and delivering power, maintaining the Corporation's transmission and distribution systems, operating expenses, and maintaining a level of margin that will enable the Corporation to finance its operations and construct new electric facilities.

Capital credits are created when margins (revenues minus expenses) are left over at the end of each year.  If there are no extra margins, no capital credits are allocated.  Excess margins are evenly distributed to members' capital credits accounts (separate from billing accounts) according to the dollar amount that a member spent with the Corporation during the year.  Your capital credits represent your share of ownership in the Corporation.

At the discretion of the Board of Directors, capital credits are refunded to members whenever they determine that returning capital credits will not jeopardize the Corporation's financial stability.

Over the past 13 years, the Corporation has returned more than $19.1 million in capital credits to our members.

At its April 23, 2015, annual meeting, the Corporation's shareholders approved a change to its by-laws that enables the Board of Directors, at its discretion, to retire capital credits to the estate of a deceased member who is a natural person prior to the time such capital would otherwise be retired if the legal representative of the deceased member's estate requests so in writing by filling out an affidavit.  Any early retirement of capital credits under this provision of the by-laws will be on a discounted present value basis using as a ratio multiplier such percentage as shall be set annually by the Board of Directors.  For more information, please call us at 877.876.3511.