Barry Electric Cooperative: 101
June 16
Sheila Harris
After moving to Cassville last fall from an area where electricity was provided by Liberty Utilities, I was unfamiliar with the operation of my new provider: Barry Electric, a rural electric cooperative. However, I viewed it as a good opportunity to learn, and Barry Electric CEO, Jennifer McBroom, was willing to provide me with information. Here follows Part One of our conversation.
Barry Electric’s website describes an electric cooperative as a private, not-for-profit company whose purpose is to deliver reliable electricity to its customers or members. It must fulfill The cooperative’s two main requirements are: to re-invest revenue into the cooperative’s service-area communities through stable rates and infrastructure, or to return it to members through patronage capital.
New Barry Electric CEO, Jennifer McBroom, offered clarity.
“Barry Electric is part of a three-tiered cooperative system,” she explained. “We are a distributor of electricity, that electricity is transmitted to our substations by KAMO Power, based in Vinita, Oklahoma."
KAMO, according to its website, is a generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative which transmits electricity to 17 distribution cooperatives – including Barry Electric – in northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. KAMO is one of six G&T utility cooperatives, which, in turn, are member/owners of Associated Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Springfield.
In its role, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Associated) generates the electricity to be distributed and transmitted through 51 cooperatives in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa.
According to Jennifer McBroom, Associated uses a mix of resources to generate power, including hydro, wind, coal, and natural gas. Not all the energy sources can be considered “clean energy,” nevertheless, the mix of options offers advantages to their cooperative members, McBroom says.
“During the cold snap in February,” McBroom said, “when other utility companies ran out of resources and were forced to impose rolling blackouts on their customers, because Associated Electric has optional resources, we were able to keep up with demands, so that our members didn’t experience those black-outs.”
In Barry County, Barry Electric Cooperative provides electricity to some 7,000 members divided among three districts, with Cassville central to distribution points of the service territory. Barry Electric supplies areas as far north as Butterfield and south of Cassville, near the state line.
Each district has three directors who serve three-year staggered terms. Every year, one of the directors is up for re-election, dependent upon a nomination from fellow cooperative members in their district. Voting takes place during the co-op’s annual meeting every spring. During the week prior to Annual Meeting, members are able to register and vote at the office of BEC. On the day of Annual Meeting, members are able to vote, enjoy live music, and have the opportunity to meet those who make the local decisions about the cooperative they’re members of.
McBroom was chosen for the role of CEO for Barry Electric in March of this year, after five years as the Chief Financial Officer for the cooperative and prior experience in the banking industry.
McBroom relocated to southwest Missouri from Clarksville, Tennessee, in 2014, with her husband, Tony, and sons, Aiden and Estin.
“My roots in Cassville run deep,” she said. “It’s the place where my grandparents, Don and Margaret Beeson, lived when I was young, and where my mother now lives. I’ve always called it my second home.”
McBroom will soon call Cassville her first home, after she and her family complete a move from Monett.
Part Two of my conversation with Jennifer McBroom will follow next week.
- Editor
Sheila Harris
After moving to Cassville last fall from an area where electricity was provided by Liberty Utilities, I was unfamiliar with the operation of my new provider: Barry Electric, a rural electric cooperative. However, I viewed it as a good opportunity to learn, and Barry Electric CEO, Jennifer McBroom, was willing to provide me with information. Here follows Part One of our conversation.
Barry Electric’s website describes an electric cooperative as a private, not-for-profit company whose purpose is to deliver reliable electricity to its customers or members. It must fulfill The cooperative’s two main requirements are: to re-invest revenue into the cooperative’s service-area communities through stable rates and infrastructure, or to return it to members through patronage capital.
New Barry Electric CEO, Jennifer McBroom, offered clarity.
“Barry Electric is part of a three-tiered cooperative system,” she explained. “We are a distributor of electricity, that electricity is transmitted to our substations by KAMO Power, based in Vinita, Oklahoma."
KAMO, according to its website, is a generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative which transmits electricity to 17 distribution cooperatives – including Barry Electric – in northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri. KAMO is one of six G&T utility cooperatives, which, in turn, are member/owners of Associated Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Springfield.
In its role, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Associated) generates the electricity to be distributed and transmitted through 51 cooperatives in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa.
According to Jennifer McBroom, Associated uses a mix of resources to generate power, including hydro, wind, coal, and natural gas. Not all the energy sources can be considered “clean energy,” nevertheless, the mix of options offers advantages to their cooperative members, McBroom says.
“During the cold snap in February,” McBroom said, “when other utility companies ran out of resources and were forced to impose rolling blackouts on their customers, because Associated Electric has optional resources, we were able to keep up with demands, so that our members didn’t experience those black-outs.”
In Barry County, Barry Electric Cooperative provides electricity to some 7,000 members divided among three districts, with Cassville central to distribution points of the service territory. Barry Electric supplies areas as far north as Butterfield and south of Cassville, near the state line.
Each district has three directors who serve three-year staggered terms. Every year, one of the directors is up for re-election, dependent upon a nomination from fellow cooperative members in their district. Voting takes place during the co-op’s annual meeting every spring. During the week prior to Annual Meeting, members are able to register and vote at the office of BEC. On the day of Annual Meeting, members are able to vote, enjoy live music, and have the opportunity to meet those who make the local decisions about the cooperative they’re members of.
McBroom was chosen for the role of CEO for Barry Electric in March of this year, after five years as the Chief Financial Officer for the cooperative and prior experience in the banking industry.
McBroom relocated to southwest Missouri from Clarksville, Tennessee, in 2014, with her husband, Tony, and sons, Aiden and Estin.
“My roots in Cassville run deep,” she said. “It’s the place where my grandparents, Don and Margaret Beeson, lived when I was young, and where my mother now lives. I’ve always called it my second home.”
McBroom will soon call Cassville her first home, after she and her family complete a move from Monett.
Part Two of my conversation with Jennifer McBroom will follow next week.
- Editor