Formation | 1998 |
---|---|
Type | Cooperative Federation |
Location | |
Key people | Jim Bausell, Mary McLaury, Josh McGhee |
Website | touchstoneenergy.com |
Touchstone Energy Cooperatives (also called simply Touchstone) is a cooperative federation composed of more than 750 local, consumer-owned utility cooperatives in 46 states in the United States. Touchstone Energy co-ops serve more than 30 million members.
Touchstone Energy was founded in 1998. Most of its members are also members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The federation includes both generation and transmission cooperatives and distribution cooperatives. More than 88% of Touchstone Energy's local electric co-ops generate at least a portion of their electricity from renewable resources. [1]
Touchstone Energy provides support to its member cooperatives in various ways, including training in strategy development and execution best practices. [2]
Touchstone Energy's North Carolina cooperatives established the Bright Ideas grant program in 1993. The program provides educational grants of up to $3,000 for teachers in North Carolina who fund classroom-based projects out of their own pockets. [3]
In July 2010 an agreement was reached between the EPA and Hoosier Energy to reduce emissions that are regulated under the Clean Air Act. The agreement covers a civil penalty and a commitment to upgrade the air pollution controls at two power plants in Indiana, Merom Generating Station, and Frank E. Ratts Generating Station. [4]
Energy Star is a program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that promotes energy efficiency. The program provides information on the energy consumption of products and devices using different standardized methods. The Energy Star label is found on more than 75 different certified product categories, homes, commercial buildings, and industrial plants. In the United States, the Energy Star label is also shown on the Energy Guide appliance label of qualifying products.
A utility cooperative is a type of cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications to its members. Profits are either reinvested for infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are dividends paid on a member's investment in the cooperative.
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is an energy utility company based in the U.S. state of Washington that provides electrical power and natural gas to the Puget Sound region. The utility serves electricity to more than 1.1 million customers in Island, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Pierce, Skagit, Thurston, and Whatcom counties, and provides natural gas to 750,000 customers in King, Kittitas, Lewis, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties. The company's electric and natural gas service area spans 6,000 square miles (16,000 km2).
Navajo Generating Station was a 2.25-gigawatt, coal-fired power plant located on the Navajo Nation, near Page, Arizona, United States. This plant provided electrical power to customers in Arizona, Nevada, and California. It also provided the power for pumping Colorado River water for the Central Arizona Project, supplying about 1.5 million acre feet (1.85 km3) of water annually to central and southern Arizona. As of 2017 permission to operate as a conventional coal-fired plant was anticipated until 2017–2019, and to December 22, 2044, if extended. However, in 2017, the utility operators of the power station voted to close the facility when the lease expires in 2019. In March 2019, the Navajo Nation ended efforts to buy the plant and continue running it after the lease expires.
Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.
Santee Cooper, also known officially from the 1930s as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, is South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility that came into being during the New Deal as both a rural electrification and public works project that created two lakes and cleared large tracts of land while building hydro-electric dams and power plants. Its headquarters are located in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
Mississippi Power is an investor-owned electric utility and a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company. Mississippi Power Company (MPC) is headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Choptank Electric Cooperative is a nonprofit utility cooperative that distributes electricity to rural areas in the Eastern Shore region of the state of Maryland. The cooperative, which was founded in 1938, is headquartered in Denton.
E. J. Stoneman Generating Station was an electrical power station located in Cassville in Grant County, Wisconsin. It was originally a coal fired facility for several decades and a biomass facility for 5 years.
Frank E. Ratts Generating Station was Indiana’s first electric cooperative power plant, located on the White River near Petersburg in Pike County, Indiana. It was 1 mile (1.6 km) downstream from the larger coal-fired Petersburg Generating Station. Ratts Generating Station was rated to produce 250 MW of electricity with two turbine generators that began commercial operation in 1970. It was owned by Hoosier Energy.
West Florida Electric Cooperative, Inc. (WFEC) is a not-for-profit rural electric utility cooperative headquartered in Graceville, Florida. It is a member of the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association, the National Rural Electric Association, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative and the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives alliance.
Merom Generating Station is a 2-unit, 1080 MW rated coal-fired power plant located between Merom, Indiana, and Sullivan, Indiana, which has been in operation since 1982. It is owned by Hallador Energy Company, who acquired it from Hoosier Energy effective October 21, 2022.
Missouri Coalition for the Environment, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) state-level conservation organization, campaigns for clean air, clean water and clean energy in Missouri. The organization is member and grant supported.
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) is an electric generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia. ODEC provides wholesale power to its 11 member electric cooperatives in the states of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware in the United States. ODEC generates its electricity from coal, fuel oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy.
Fox Islands Electric Cooperative is a utility cooperative based in Vinalhaven, Maine. The cooperative provides electricity for the residents of Penobscot Bay islands North Haven and Vinalhaven. Vinalhaven is home to the Fox Islands Wind Project's three 1.5 MW turbines, which provide electricity for both islands and compose the largest community wind energy facility on the East Coast of the United States.
The United States state of Arkansas is a significant producer of natural gas and a minor producer of petroleum.
Gateway Generating Station (GGS), formerly Contra Costa Unit 8 Power Project, is a combined-cycle, natural-gas-fired power station in Contra Costa County, California, which provides power to half a million customers in northern and central California. Gateway Generating Station is on the southern shore of the San Joaquin River, in Antioch, and is one of more than ten fossil-fuel power plants in Contra Costa County.