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“We operate from basic cooperative principles of helping our members, and always putting them and our community first.”
With stories constantly swirling in the media about skyrocketing energy costs, Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) members are optimistic and grateful to the Cooperative for energy savings opportunities—especially for their in-home energy consultations. In fact, Director of Communications, Amber Till, says that Northwestern REC regularly receives thank-you notes from members, along with other positive feedback about the work they do.
“We really try to offer members concrete, achievable ideas for repairs and improvements to help lower their energy costs,” says Till. “We operate from basic cooperative principles of helping our members, and always putting them and our community first. And I think our members can feel that. Many days, when I get into the office, I find a handwritten thank-you note in the mail from a member, and I run it down to the power-line supervisor so he can read it aloud at their morning meeting.”
In fact, as a result of various energy-saving initiatives recommended by Northwestern REC’s auditors, members paid about 12 percent less for energy in 2024 on average than the typical Pennsylvania electric utility consumer – about $139 per month for 891 kilowatt hours, as opposed to $157 per month for the same amount of electricity.
Residents of northwestern PA have not always been so lucky, however.
In the early 1930s, electricity was only offered to households and businesses in densely populated areas, leaving farmers and those who lived in rural America in the dark. When asked to extend power lines to rural homes and businesses, investor-owned power companies simply said no, because it would cost them too much money. According to these early utilities, if rural regions wanted electricity, those customers would have to build and maintain the infrastructure themselves – as well as pay for it, costing each electric customer thousands of dollars.
Since this was during the Great Depression, most households – especially farming households – didn’t have two spare nickels to rub together. It wasn’t until the Second New Deal in 1936, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Rural Electrification Act, that the federal government finally provided loans and technical assistance to groups of rural residents to build infrastructure needed for electricity – and at a cost of just five dollars per customer.
So rural residents rallied together to build their own electric grids that would later be connected to larger, regional electric grids. And in August 1936, Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative (REC), was born, becoming the first rural electric cooperative of 14 sister cooperatives scattered throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Headquartered in Cambridge Springs in Crawford County, PA, Northwestern REC is a not-for-profit, at-cost electric distribution cooperative that serves nearly 20,000 members in northwestern Pennsylvania, primarily in Erie and Crawford counties, as well as in parts of Mercer, Venango, and Warren counties. It also serves a small number of members in Chautauqua County, New York, and a handful of customers in Ashtabula County, Ohio.
As a member-owned electric cooperative, Northwestern REC provides safe, reliable, and affordable electric service while seeking innovative ways to improve quality of life in the communities it serves – primarily through keeping energy costs down and protecting the health and natural beauty of the region.
To that end, Northwestern REC’s generation & transmission partner, Allegheny Electric Cooperative, produces about 60 percent of the electricity it uses, and in a carbon-free manner. This energy comes from renewable sources like Raystown Hydroelectric Plant in Huntington County, which is owned by Allegheny Electric Cooperative, and Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a portion of which is owned by Northwestern REC and other state cooperatives. The remaining 40 percent is purchased on the open market for mixed fuel source generation.
Northwestern REC’s 60/40 energy mix saves approximately five tons of carbon dioxide emissions on any given day, which is roughly equal to making 13 round-trip flights between New York and Miami.
Northwestern REC also employs two trained energy auditors who visit their members in their homes and businesses to perform energy assessments and make recommendations tailored for each member. These recommendations range from replacing doors and windows to prevent energy leaks, to placing a solar panel array on a sunny sloped roof.
In fact, one of the most popular recommendations, followed by about 9,000 of Northwestern REC’s 20,000 members, is participating in Northwestern REC’s “load management” program, offered through Allegheny Electric Cooperative. The program began in the 1970s, amid the widespread American energy crisis.
The load management program offers members “smart” water heaters and heating systems that receive signals from Northwestern REC, allowing Northwestern REC to coordinate when these appliances receive energy to charge or power their operations. This often happens overnight when people are sleeping, as households and businesses generally use less energy at night, meaning demand and rates are lower. During the day, when most people are awake and actively using electricity, energy rates become more expensive.
Similar to charging a cell phone at night so that it has power the following day, Northwestern’s load management system ensures water heaters and heating systems receive their energy at night so they can continue to perform seamlessly – and more affordably – the following day. Northwestern REC prizes reliability, so even when demand is high on the grid or just in the household, participants do not lose heating/cooling capacity or hot water access.
This translates to lower energy costs for all 20,000 Northwestern members, not just those participating in the load management program (although members who actively participate receive a further discounted rate, too). It also lowers costs for members at other Pennsylvania and New Jersey electric cooperatives, which participate in the same program. Northwestern REC customers paid about 12 percent less on average than customers of investor-owned utilities in 2024.
This savings could continue to grow as more members opt into the load management program and other energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Because any reduction in energy usage or gain in free energy like solar or wind helps reduce the net amount of energy needed from the grid – reducing costs for all Northwestern REC members across the board.
“Northwestern REC is prouder than ever of the many proactive energy-saving measures we have already put in place.”
In addition, Northwestern REC itself was fortunate to recently receive more than $5 million dollars via two grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Grid Resilience Grant Program that was funded by the 2021 Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These two grants will greatly improve the reliability and capacity of Northwestern REC’s electrical grid, offsetting approximately 60 percent of construction costs to improve grid reliability and mitigating the extent to which those costs are passed on to their members.
Northwestern REC also received funding from the USDA's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which it used to offer rebates for EnergyStar appliances. In addition, in 2020 it received an alternative fuels investment grant to install the first public, level-two electric vehicle charger in Crawford County, which is in operation at Northwestern REC’s headquarters in Cambridge Springs.
As for the future, Northwestern REC hopes to make further investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy, but the scope and timeline remain uncertain. Recent federal policy changes may temper immediate future expansion.
For example, many of Northwestern REC’s individual members who have invested in solar and wind energy had leveraged the renewable energy tax credit to help make those projects happen. With that tax credit now set to expire due to the “One, Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB), Northwestern REC predicts fewer members will be able to make the switch to renewable energy – and that the Cooperative’s own efforts to invest in commercial solar may be stymied, as well.
The OBBB also ended the Energy Efficient Home Improvement tax credit, which covered up to 30% of the cost of energy-efficient upgrades like heat pumps, weatherization, and electrical panel work (subject to individual-item limitations). This tax credit has previously saved homeowners hundreds to thousands of dollars per year.
However, the future remains bright for Northwestern REC members. Amber Till, their communications director, says, “With energy costs rising so unpredictably and the loss of the federal tax credits, Northwestern REC is prouder than ever of the many proactive energy-saving measures we have already put in place. We remain committed to doing everything we can to keep electric bills as affordable as possible for our members.”
