More than 80 years ago, Nevada’s rural residents worked together to turn the lights on. Nevada’s power districts, municipal utilities and electric cooperatives were created to bring electricity to communities too remote for investor-owned utilities to yield profits for absentee stockholders. Bringing electricity to Rural America was a movement so life-changing that President Franklin D. Roosevelt said “the forward march of electric cooperatives has profound significance in terms of our fight to preserve the democracy.” When consumers elect the boards and councils that govern their municipal electric systems, power districts and cooperatives, democracy is at work. Through their elected representatives, consumers choose their source of electricity, structure conservation and energy efficiency programs to fit local conditions, aid fellow consumers in need and strengthen their communities.
The Nevada Rural Electric Association (NREA) was founded in 1974 to represent the collective interests of one municipal utility, six rural electric cooperatives and two power districts and their consumers across Nevada.