A WAPA customer appeared on a list of the 300 largest cooperatives and mutual organizations in the world, released by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) during the International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec, Canada, Oct. 11-13.

According to the 2016 World Cooperative Monitor, Basin Electric Power Cooperative ranked 215^th with $2.25 billion in revenue—which the report calls “turnover”—up 14 places from last year. Two more WAPA customers, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Great River Energy, appeared among the Top 20 in the industry and utility category, with $1.4 billion and $1.2 billion in turnover respectively. Within the overall study, U.S. electric co-ops dominated the industry and utilities category with 11 organizations in the Top 20.

From a global perspective, however, energy cooperatives represent only a small portion of the organizations built on the cooperative business model. Insurance and agricultural/food groups comprise 64 percent of all co-ops with revenues of $100 million or more, topping all categories. The 2016 edition of the monitor is based on information submitted by 2,370 cooperatives from 63 countries.

Even so, electric cooperatives are a big business in the US, owning and maintaining 42 percent of the nation’s electrical distribution lines, generating 5 percent of its electricity and employing 72,000 people. Such figures support the ICA’s vision of cooperative organizations creating jobs, empowering citizens and building communities. That is a pretty good description of WAPA customers, if we do say so ourselves.

The World Cooperative Monitor collects and analyzes data on the world’s largest co-operative and mutual organizations and other enterprises controlled by co-operatives. The International Cooperative Alliance produced the report in conjunction with the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises.

Source: America’s Electric Cooperatives, 10/17/16