On April 1, 2025, Claiborne Electric began a new wholesale power contract with 1803 Electric Cooperative, a power supply cooperative jointly owned by five electric cooperatives. I would like to share a little history, provide some information about how 1803 Electric Cooperative came to be, and explain how our contract will work moving forward.
As an electric distribution cooperative, our purpose is to safely and reliably deliver electricity at an affordable rate to our members, who own the cooperative. We currently purchase electricity from a Generation and Transmission company (G&T) called Pelican Power, based in New Roads, La. We sell this electricity to our members at a rate that allows us to cover our costs. As a not-for-profit cooperative, our goal is to cover costs and maintain a stable financial condition, not to make a profit.
Through the early nineties, Claiborne Electric and 10 other electric cooperatives in Louisiana purchased electricity from Cajun Electric Power Cooperative. Cajun Electric operated as a cooperative, and Claiborne Electric was a member of that cooperative. In 1994, Cajun Electric declared bankruptcy after a failed investment in a large nuclear power plant. After a five-year bankruptcy process, Cajun Electric’s assets were purchased by Louisiana Generating, LLC.
Louisiana Generating was a private corporation, not a cooperative, and was a subsidiary of New Jersey-based NRG Energy. Louisiana Generating operated the G&T facility in New Roads and, more recently, constructed a facility in Jennings until 2018, when it was purchased by Cleco-Cajun, a subsidiary of Cleco Energy LLC, an investor-owned utility headquartered in Pineville, LA. Late in 2023, Cleco-Cajun’s assets were sold to Atlas Capital Resources. These same resources now supply Claiborne Electric under the name Pelican Power. As an aside, I will mention here that we often hear in our communities that we purchase electricity from Entergy. That is simply not true. Although Entergy owns many of the transmission systems that deliver power to electric utilities throughout the state, those lines simply deliver the power we purchase from our power provider.
In 2018, several rural electric cooperatives in Louisiana began discussing the future of their power supply contracts. Most of these cooperatives had power supply contracts ending in 2024 and 2025. The cooperatives felt they had a duty to explore other power supply options which more closely aligned with the co-op principles, rather than simply signing up to extend the current contracts offered by a for-profit company. The cooperatives decided to investigate other opportunities regarding power supply contracts that would benefit the cooperatives and their members.
The goal was to make sure the interests of the cooperatives and their members were the priority. The cooperatives had a strong desire to take control of their future and their power supply. Eventually, these discussions led Louisiana electric cooperatives to return to the cooperative business model and form their own G&T cooperative – 1803 Electric Cooperative.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission approved 1803’s power purchase strategy in January 2022. It was the first time in decades that Louisiana electric cooperatives made a move to make their own power supply decisions to best fit their needs.
1803 member cooperatives:
· Claiborne Electric Cooperative
· Beauregard Electric Cooperative
· Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative
· South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association
· Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative
PC Electric will also be a member of 1803 for transmission services only. 1803 is governed by representatives from the member cooperatives. Their staff works to secure large-scale power contracts and provide power to the five member cooperatives.
Benefits of returning to a cooperative-model G&T include:
· More flexibility in long-term power supply
· Cost-of-service-based wholesale supply, which is expected to be at a lower cost than previous supply contracts
· Direct control of decisions impacting the cooperatives and their members
· More proactive management and hedging of fuel costs
· Increased focus on reliability and affordability
We are excited about the return to a cooperative business model for our power supply contract, and we believe this move will benefit our members with more reliable and more affordable electric service.
Michael Marcotte
Claiborne Electric General Manager & CEO