History

1935

Not three percent of the rural homes, businesses and farms that dot the countryside in what is now Walton EMC’s service area have electricity. The days are long and the chores are backbreaking. Just having electric power on the farm would be like hiring several new hands. But the prospect of electric service in the country doesn’t look very bright.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt often visited his rural Warm Springs, Georgia, home during those days — fondly called the Little White House — and lamented the fact that his neighbors didn’t have access to the power of electricity. Even though he enjoyed electrical convenience, Roosevelt’s bill ran four times what it did at his New York home. He also recognized that access to affordable electricity was vital if these areas were to move forward with the rest of the nation into economic prosperity.

Roosevelt first approached investor-owned (stockholder) utilities with low-interest loans to entice them to extend their lines. They weren’t interested. The population was just too sparse for their efforts to be profitable.

Since those utilities energizing the cities show no interest in lighting the countryside, Roosevelt decides to let the citizenry take matters in their own hands by offering them the same low-interest loans.

With Roosevelt’s Executive Order 7035 establishing the Rural Electrification Administration, seven prominent Walton County leaders each give one dollar toward the charter of a member-owned electric company — a cooperative. That cooperative is Walton Electric Membership Corporation.

The cooperative business model is perfect for the job. Co-ops are formed when the marketplace fails to provide needed goods or services at an affordable price, acceptable quality or both.

Because the same people who receive this new electric service are the same people who own the company, they’ll receive service at cost. And if anything is left over at the end of the year, it’s returned to the customer-owners because it would be self-defeating to make a profit. Fellow members elected from the customer base serve on the board to set policy and regulate the new electric company.

A cooperative business

Walton EMC, like other cooperatives, is structured to operate by a set of seven time-tested principles:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Cooperation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community

Being customer-owned gives Walton EMC a unique culture and business philosophy. The cooperative’s elected leaders, management and employees place the greatest priority on service rather than creating profits for stockholders.

Prioritizing service allows co-op employees to recommend and promote practices that are in the best interest of Walton EMC’s customer-owners. Surveys show that consumers prefer to do business with cooperatively owned businesses and that overall satisfaction ranks higher with customer-owned companies like Walton EMC.

Lighting up

The first board of directors guided operations from an office on East Spring Street in Monroe. It was a small room that was earlier used as the stock room for a service station.

In less than a year after its charter was granted on October 3, 1936, Walton EMC employees build 90 miles of line and connect 360 members. The co-op’s ten-county service area is never the same.

Mr. Lindsey Powers is the first member. His farm is in Walton County’s Turkey Mountain community, just down the road from Walton EMC’s current headquarters. The homeplace is still owned by his descendants. Here is Powers’ story about what it was like to see the lights come on:

“They [the lights] finally came on. We had a little 40- or 50-watt bulb. After dinner, I failed to go to the field again.”

“She [Mr. Powers’ wife] said, ‘Why are you not going to the field again?’”

“I said ‘I’m celebrating today. I’m gonna sit here ‘til dark comes and see how supper eats with a good light!’”

Number of members – 350 

Other highlights in our co-op’s successful history:

1940s

Number of members – 5,000

1941 | Just as the job of bringing lights to the dark countryside is gaining steam, World War II quickly halts the progress due to domestic shortages of manpower and materials.

1946 | New zeal, combined with technology springing out of the U.S. war effort, results in the explosive expansion of rural electric systems. Fifty percent of rural America has electricity.

1949 | Walton EMC builds a new headquarters on North Broad Street in Monroe that serves as its home for the next 26 years. The first issue of the co-op’s member newsletter, The Realite, is published.

1950s

Number of members – 8,000 

1952 | Walton EMC electrification advisors conduct programs throughout the territory to teach members how to use electric appliances to do all sorts of chores. They promote clean electric heating and urge members to upgrade their electric service capacity to take advantage of new innovations.

1955 | The heat pump, a revolutionary new heating system, is on display in the Monroe office.

1960s

Number of members – 10,000 

1961 | Line technicians install the 500th security light.

1963 | Walton EMC hires its first meter readers. Before, customers read their own meters, marked a card with the reading, and mailed it back to the co-op.

1964 | First year Walton EMC sponsored local high school students for Washington Youth Tour, an all-expenses paid leadership experience in Washington, D.C.

1965 | The first Snellville office opens.

1969 | The first Watkinsville office opens.

1970s

Number of members – 30,000 

1971 | The wholesale price of electricity begins to rise dramatically, prompting a movement toward energy conservation.

1973 | The Georgia Legislature passes the Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act. This law sets specific areas served by the state’s electric utilities to assure efficient, economic, and orderly delivery of electric service. It also promises to keep a check on invading investor-owned power companies that now realize their missed opportunities as the once-rural countryside has grown into suburbia.

1974 | Walton and 38 other Georgia EMCs form Oglethorpe Power Corporation, an electric generation and transmission cooperative. Oglethorpe is designed to end the EMCs dependence on Georgia Power Company for their wholesale power needs. Georgia Power’s dire financial situation presents the EMCs with an opportunity to purchase capacity in Plant Vogtle, a nuclear generating facility near Augusta.

1975 | The present headquarters office at 842 Highway 78 NW in Monroe opens.

1977 | The Switch/Save program, a load management program that seeks to lower the co-op’s peak demand by controlling members’ air conditioners and water heaters on hot summer afternoons, is introduced.

1980s

Number of members – 55,000

1983 | The present Snellville office location opens.

1985 | The ERC loan program, designed to offer low-interest financing to members for energy efficiency improvements, is implemented. It is the forerunner of the Prime PowerLoan.

1987 | Walton EMC adopts the Good Cents marketing program to encourage members to choose all-electric heat pumps for their space heating needs.

1990s

Number of members – 85,000

1996 | As talk of electric industry deregulation grows, Oglethorpe Power is split into three distinct companies: Oglethorpe Power, Georgia Transmission Corporation and Georgia System Operations Corporation. This move makes the entity more efficient and cost-effective. Deregulation also allows Walton EMC to shop the market for future power needs. The co-op’s first dispersed generation facilities are installed at the Monroe office and other locations.

1996 | The co-op switches financing from the Rural Utilities Service (formerly Rural Electrification Administration) to a cooperative, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Financing Corporation (CFC). Paying off RUS loans early saves millions of dollars and opens more financing options. This also means Walton EMC does not receive government loans or subsidies.

1997 | Operation Round Up begins. Members can choose to “round up” their electric bill to the next dollar with the proceeds going to help charitable organizations and worthy individuals in need throughout the cooperative’s service territory.

1998 | EMC Security is formed with sister cooperative Jackson EMC. The new company is a trailblazer in the security industry, offering no-contract monitoring. Customers respond and EMC Security eventually becomes one of the largest home and business security providers in the country. From its inception, EMC Security has constantly received high marks for customer satisfaction.

1998 | Georgia’s natural gas market is deregulated. Walton EMC partners with Peachtree Natural Gas to offer natural gas service to the co-op’s members.

1999 | The cooperative purchases and installs its own natural gas turbine generator in Oconee County to lower the cost of power during times of peak demand.

2000s

Number of members – 115,000

2000 | Doyle Generating Plant I is operational. The natural gas-fired generating plant, built in partnership with a large generating company helps meet the peak power demand of Walton EMC members. Walton EMC later becomes sole owner of the facility and later sells it to Oglethorpe Power Corporation. The plant remains part of the co-op’s generating portfolio.

2001 | The new Watkinsville Operations Center opens.

2001 | Walton and 15 other Georgia EMCs form Green Power EMC, the Southeast’s largest operational green power program. The joint effort provides green power sources – solar, landfill methane, biomass, and low-impact hydro – to EMCs for members who are interested in participating in green power generation.

2002 | Walton Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary for marketing natural gas, begins signing up new customers. The company does business as Walton EMC Natural Gas, later shortening the name to Walton Gas. Walton Gas remains operational and has been recognized several times by J.D. Power as having the highest customer satisfaction for a residential natural gas provider.

2007 | Walton EMC begins its automated meter reading program. The new system sends meter readings to the co-op’s billing system computers over existing power lines, saving money and improving the accuracy of readings. Meter readers are not laid off; rather, they are transitioned into new jobs within the cooperative.

2007 | The cooperative fields its first team to compete in the Georgia Lineman’s Rodeo. The Rodeo is an opportunity for linemen to demonstrate their technical expertise in tasks that mirror real challenges faced in maintaining a reliable electric grid. The competition tests precision, safety and teamwork.

2007 | Walton EMC’s underground crews win the first of many Golden Backhoe awards. The annual award is presented to the crew in each of the seven Georgia DOT regions that demonstrates exemplary safety and excellence in avoiding underground utility damage.

2008 | Apprentice Lineman Ryan West is crowned World Champion Apprentice at the International Lineman’s Rodeo in Kansas City, Mo.

2008 | To foster education and leadership in fields relevant to our industry, the co-op begins the University of Georgia Engineering Leadership Scholarship program.

2009 | The first Walton Electric Trust college scholarships are awarded to students from across the co-op’s service area. Emphasis is placed on awarding the scholarships to students who have overcome significant obstacles.

2010s

Number of members – 130,000 

2011 | Walton EMC is named EMC of the Year for the inaugural Georgia Electric Membership Corporation Community Service and Volunteerism Award. The award recognized Walton EMC’s “unprecedented generosity” in supporting local communities through volunteerism, charitable giving, and community-focused programs.

2011 | The co-op’s Health and Wellness Center opens to give employees and their dependents a convenient, cost-saving option for many of their healthcare needs.

2014 | PrePay debuts as an alternative to traditional billing for residential members. Instead of receiving a monthly bill, consumers can set the payment plan and amount that fits their budget.

2014 | Walton EMC is named highest in customer satisfaction in residential electricity providers by J.D. Power.

2014 | The co-op buys the first electric vehicle for its fleet.

2015 | The Cooperative Solar program begins. Walton EMC constructs solar power facilities to produce green power that members can voluntarily subscribe to. Participating members purchase blocks that each represent a portion of the facility’s monthly output.

2017 |The first School Empowerment Grants are awarded by the co-op to schools across the 10-county service area.

2017 | Hurricane Irma broke 120 poles throughout Walton EMC’s territory, setting a record for one storm.

2018 | Walton EMC is chosen to supply Facebook’s Newton Data Center with 100 percent renewable power. The agreement leads to innovative green power deals with solar developer Silicon Ranch to supply the needed energy.

2019 | The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy names Walton EMC as leading all utilities in the Southeast in solar energy production.

2020s

Number of members – 140,000

2020 | Due to safety concerns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual meeting transitions to a drive-through format. Many other business and customer service operations are modified to help curb the spread of the disease and keep members safe.

2023 | Walton EMC, in collaboration with Silicon Ranch, announces plans for three new utility-scale solar facilities, bringing the total to 10 Georgia-based solar farms to support Meta Platforms’ Newton data center with 100 percent renewable energy.

2023 | Walton EMC customer-owners begin receiving safe, reliable, emission-free nuclear energy from Plant Vogtle Unit 3. Unit 4 becomes operational a few months later.

2024 | Walton EMC earns the right to be called “#1 for Brand Appeal,” after ranking first among residential electric cooperatives in the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Electric Utility Brand Appeal Index Study.

2024 | Operation Round Up donations exceed $9 million.

2024 | Walton EMC returns $9 million in capital credits to co-op customer-owners, bringing all-time distributions to $152 million.

2025 | Annual meeting has record attendance with 2,430 registered members.