Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative is a rural electric cooperative serving more than 23,000 consumer-members across six counties in far Western Kentucky. JPEC is one of 24 rural electric distribution cooperatives in Kentucky, which together provide electricity for 1.5 million Kentuckians in 117 of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative was organized in 1937 and the first lines were energized in 1938. JPEC currently owns and maintains more that 2,990 miles of line and 27 substations.
Mission
Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative will provide safe, reliable, and competitively priced electric service to our consumer members.
Service Area
Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative serves six counties in Western Kentucky:
Ballard, Carlisle, Graves, Livingston, Marshall, and McCracken.
Our service area is comprised of eight districts, with a member representative from each district serving on our board of directors.
- District 1: David Brown
- District 2: Terry Teitloff
- District 3: Lee Bearden
- District 4: Joshua Barnes
- District 5: Kevin Bell
- District 6: Erick Harris
- District 7: Wayne Elliott
- District 8: Jack Marshall
History of Jackson Purchase Energy Cooperative
On May 11, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration. Just over a year later, he signed the Rural Electrification Act, which cleared the way for the United States Department of Agriculture to work with local farmers and ranchers to bring electricity to their communities.
The year of Jackson Purchase Energy’s incorporation was 1937, the time of the Great Flood, when the Ohio River and its major Kentucky tributaries wreaked devastation and inundated Paducah. Estimated damage: a quarter of a billion dollars.
The floodwaters subsided in February, and in June Jackson Purchase Rural Electric was incorporated.
As of March 8, 1940, Jackson Purchase REA had three hundred and twenty-two miles of line with one hundred and thirty-two more under construction or proposed and membership of about one thousand two hundred.
As of December 2022, JPEC has 2,986 miles of line and 23,197 consumer-members with 30,487 meters.
From 1937 to the present, the managers of Jackson Purchase Energy have been:
1937 to 1961 Carmel Harris
1961 to 1967 Hobert C. Adams
1968 Howard V. Reid
1969 to 1982 James E. Campbell
1983 to 1984 John F. Ferguson
1985 to 1996 David E. Stiles, Jr.
1996 to 1997 Donnie Lanier (interim)
1997 to 2014 G. Kelly Nuckols
2015 to 2018 Dennis Cannon
2018 to present Gregory Grissom
We are very proud to celebrate more than 80 years as a cooperative. It is a tribute to the many men and women who contributed to our conception and development and to those who continue the operation of providing reliable and cost-effective electric service to the rural residents of Western Kentucky.