In the United States, rural electric cooperatives have been an integral part of the energy system for almost a century, starting as an effort to electrify rural areas before World War II.

Because they are democratically organized, energy cooperatives give communities ownership of their energy, as well as empower and educate individuals to be more responsible with energy consumption. In the United States, rural electric cooperatives have been part of the energy system for almost a century. This analysis uses the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Form EIA-861 database to contextualize the changes in the cooperative sector in the past three decades and help to understand the evolving scenario. Overall, cooperatives represented 28% of the total utilities from 1990 to 1995, progressively reaching 38% from 2016 to 2019. As a whole group, cooperatives share some similarities and, at the same time, a large degree of heterogeneity across cooperatives.