Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO)
Kenneth Newton has extensive experience in the energy sector, currently serving as an Energy Control Center Operator at Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO) since October 2020. Prior to this role, Kenneth worked at ProEnergy Services from May 2006 to March 2013 as a Technician/Consultant specializing in Combustion Operations. Kenneth's career also includes positions as a Combustion Turbine Technician at Aquila from February 2003 to May 2006, a Combustion Technician at Progress Energy in 2002, and a Gas Turbine Technician in the US Navy from 1988 to 1998. Kenneth completed education at Inola High School, graduating in 1986.
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Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative (CHELCO)
Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative, Inc., (CHELCO) is a MEMBER OWNED, not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative employing more than 170 people and serving more than 62,000 accounts in Walton, Okaloosa, Holmes and Santa Rosa counties in the panhandle of Florida. The cooperative owns and maintains over 4,300 miles of line including those on Eglin Air Force Base. We have six area offices including our headquarters in DeFuniak Springs. CHELCO is a distribution cooperative that exclusively purchases its energy from PowerSouth Energy Cooperative. CHELCO is democratically controlled by its member-owners, who vote to elect the Board of Trustees. Each Trustee is also a CHELCO member, and they are elected on three-year cycles and represent nine districts throughout our service territory. History Although most cities had electricity by the mid-1930s, rural Americans were still in the dark. The high cost of building electric distribution lines to serve sparsely populated rural areas was thought to be unprofitable. Then in 1940, with the support of the federal Rural Electrification Administration's oversight and low-interest loans, the people of northwest Florida decided to band together to form CHELCO, a member-owned, not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative. Later that same year, CHELCO members met with 10 other electric cooperatives and formed Alabama Electric Cooperative (now PowerSouth Energy Cooperative), a generation and transmission cooperative established to generate the electricity needed by its member co-ops. CHELCO is dedicated to providing safe, reliable, and affordable electricity and has not had a rate increase since 2012. Membership, in 1940 and today, costs $5.00.