An electric legacy: East Central Energy celebrates 90 years of service

East Central Energy has officially been keeping the lights on in the region since 1936.

On Monday, ECE president Justin Jahnz joined KBEK for an interview about the cooperative's past, present, and future at its 90-year milestone.

'Wonderful opportunity made available by the government'

"Back in the 1930s, there were a lot of people in big cities that had electricity, and a lot of rural areas in our country did not," Jahnz explained. "And Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually signed the Rural Electrification Act, which allowed cooperatives to be formed and borrow money from the federal government to provide electricity to their communities."

In an Oct. 28, 1935 letter to the editor that ran in the Askov American, Pine City resident Beauford Johnson wrote that "Pine County farmers ought to organize in order to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity made available by the government."

Johnson's letter reads, in part: "Immediate steps should be taken to organize before the money made available is gobbled up by the private utility interests to further their own interests."

A group of rural farmers rallied around Johnson's initiative, and formed the P.I.C.K. Electrical Cooperative in 1936 — named for Pine, Isanti, Chisago, and Kanabec counties.

Archive photos provided by East Central Energy

In 1939, P.I.C.K. joined four neighboring electrical associations to organize the Rural Cooperative Power Association.

A decade after its formation , P.I.C.K. adopted a closer-to-recognizable name in August of 1946 — East Central Electric Association.

According to ECE's historic timeline, "million-dollar business" was reported at an annual meeting in 1949. Ten years later, in 1959, the cooperative boasted 2,800 miles of line and served 12,500 members.

Jahnz said that ECE's first headquarters were located in the building that now houses the Braham Brewing Company.

"That was the original headquarters of East Central Energy," Jahnz said. "Again, we're not that far removed from that, and it gives us a root and a sense of understanding."

ECE's headquarters in downtown Braham, 1950s

Jahnz said two major mergers helped grow the cooperative's foothold in east-central Minnesota and beyond.

One was with North Pine Electric Cooperative — which was incorporated in the Finlayson area in 1940 — in 1995.

That merger served 36,000 members on 6,000 miles of line.

The other, with Head of the Lakes Cooperative Electric Association (established in the Superior, Wisconsin region in 1936), was approved in 2002.

The combination of the cooperatives served over 50,000 homes and businesses on more than 7,500 miles of line.

"Those cooperatives came together to form what is now the footprint for East Central Energy," Jahnz said.

In the interim, a vote passed to change the cooperative's name, but keep the ECE acronym; 1999 marked the shift from East Central Electric to East Central Energy.

'A desire for people to have better services'

Jahnz also said ECE's expansion into fiber internet was a major milestone as the cooperative has kept up with accelerating technological progress since its inception.

"In 2022, the board of directors made the decision to invest in ECE Fiber," he said. "It's a project that continues on today. We're up to 7,000 connections, and it really revolutionized and changed the business model for East Central Energy in a lot of ways."

ECE Fiber officially broke ground on its broadband construction project in May of 2023 in the Dalbo area, just months after the cooperative acquired North Branch's municipal electric distribution system in February.

"They wanted to bring electricity when no one else would," Jahnz said. "It's not lost on us that we're bringing fiber internet to people when no one else will."

Jahnz said ECE's continued growth over 90 years has been sparked by "a desire for people to have better services."

"We live in an area where we're close enough to the Twin Cities, where a lot of people like to come here in the summer and enjoy this area, so there's a lot of availability to upgrade infrastructure," he said. "It's really a function of being in that transition area of the metro area, which I think has really helped the southern part of our service area grow in particular."

Beauford Johnson wrote that "cooperative light and power companies are no novelties in this state" in his 1935 letter to the editor, and Jahnz said ECE has remained committed to being a member-owned cooperative since the beginning.

ECE is now the third-largest cooperative in Minnesota by membership, and Jahnz said the service area is bigger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

"It's a large area that we serve," Jahnz said.

The next 90 years

When Jahnz graduated from high school in 1996, he spent the summer reading meters for ECE — another reminder of the rapid cycle of advancing technologies.

He's now been with the organization for 18 years, and CEO/president for the past five and a half: In 90 years, Jahnz is only the fifth CEO.

"We've had a lot of stability in leadership in the organization, and we're really proud of that," Jahnz said.

Jahnz said that while 90 years is — and seems — like a long time, there are ECE retirees he's spoken with who were there at the beginning to help put Beauford Johnson's vision into motion.

Marlene Johnson, former lieutenant governor of Minnesota and Beauford's daughter, spoke at the cooperative's last annual meeting, sharing stories about visiting her dad's office after school.

"We're not that far removed from that history, but we've come so far," Jahnz said. "What's really exciting for me to think about is in the next 90 years, where this organization will go, what will the technologies be, what will be the innovations. And to know that's all anchored by the idea of creating value for our members."

Over the next few years, Jahnz said ECE Fiber is a core component of the cooperative's focus, alongside a robust electric work plan.

"We're making big investments to upgrade aging infrastructure," he said.

Jahnz explained that keeping up with the rapidly developing pace of technological changes continues to present a challenge, as does power supply, especially with a carbon-free mandate in Minnesota by 2040.

"That's going to be a tough one, but we're working with some of the best people in the industry to solve that problem and move forward," Jahnz said.

Jahnz said that ECE has developed a "nimble workforce," one with employees who are dedicated to the service territory and its communities.

"We care about this community, we care about the people, and we're just proud to serve the members of ECE," he said. "Healthy communities lead to healthy co-ops, and healthy co-ops lead to healthy communities. It's a very symbiotic relationship. And we're here for the long haul. We've been here for 90 years, and we plan to be here for another 90."