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 August 2020, JPEC has 2,970 miles of line and 30,044 Consumer-Members billed.

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.