Company Profile
Big Rivers Electric Corporation
Company Overview
Big Rivers Electric Corporation is a member-owned, not-for-profit, generation and transmission cooperative (G&T) headquartered in Henderson, Kentucky. We provide wholesale electric power and services to three distribution cooperative members across 22 counties in western Kentucky.
The member cooperatives are Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation, headquartered in Paducah; Kenergy Corp., headquartered in Henderson; and Meade County Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, headquartered in Brandenburg. Together, they distribute retail electric power and provide other services to more than 111,000 homes, farms, businesses and industries.
Incorporated in June of 1961, the mission of Big Rivers is to safely deliver low cost, reliable wholesale power and cost-effective shared services desired by the members. Business operations revolve around seven core values: safety, integrity, excellence, member and community service, respect for the employee, teamwork, and environmental consciousness.
Big Rivers owns and operates 1,444 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity in four stations: Robert A. Reid (130 MW), Kenneth C. Coleman (443 MW), Robert D. Green (454 MW), and D.B. Wilson (417 MW).
Total power capacity is 1,834 MW, including rights to Henderson Municipal Power and Light ("HMP&L") Station Two and contracted capacity from Southeastern Power Administration ("SEPA").
Company History
The power of human connections® began working in western Kentucky in October of 1937, when the first customer of a Kentucky electric cooperative was energized on the lines of Henderson Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation.
From the beginning of the cooperative program in western Kentucky, the need for a source of reliable and sufficient power became apparent, if economic growth was to take place.
The source for a reliable, low cost power supply came in June 1961, when Big Rivers Electric Corporation was founded by its distribution system member-cooperatives.
Construction on the first Big Rivers power plant, the Robert A. Reid plant, was started in October 1963 and 65 megawatts (MW) of power production began in early 1966. Since then, Big Rivers has continued to grow to meet the needs of its member-cooperatives.
Today, those member-cooperatives are Jackson Purchase Energy Corporation, headquartered in Paducah; Kenergy Corp., headquartered in Henderson; and Meade County Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, headquartered in Brandenburg.
Together, they distribute retail electric power and provide other services to more than 111,000 homes, farms, businesses and industries.