Founded in 1937, Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative (WWCEC) has a mission to serve our member-owners with excellent electric service, superior customer service, and other services and products that improve their quality of life, at fair and affordable prices. We serve parts of 11-counties across southeastern Illinois, including portions of Wayne, White, Hamilton, Jefferson, Clay, Edwards, Richland, Franklin, Marion, Gallatin, and Wabash counties, shown in black on the Illinois map. Other electric cooperatives in the state are also depicted on the map at right.

As a unique "non-profit" cooperative, we are owned by the members we serve. With offices in Fairfield and Enfield, Wayne-White Electric Cooperative currently provides service to over 14,200 meters in southeastern Illinois.

Wayne-White maintains over 3,300 miles of energized power lines, with roughly 4.14 consumers per mile of line. WWCEC currently operates with a total of 54 employees, which includes 5 employees at Wayne-White Propane. We are a member-owner of Hoosier Energy, as one of the (18) electric cooperative member-owners. Hoosier Energy is based in Bloomington, Indiana and is the 12th largest G&T electric cooperative in the nation. Each of the oether 17 distribution electric coopreatives that make up Hoosier Energy, are located in Indiana. Our portfolio of generated energy on the grid comes from a variety of sources including Natural Gas, Coal, Hydro, Wind, and Solar.

We offer our residential customers a variety of incentive rebates on the purchase and installation of high-efficient HVAC equipment.

We also offer college scholarship opportunities for high school Seniors, which can qualify them to receive $2,000 to utilize at the college of their choice. Application information is available on our website at www.waynewhitecoop.com where you can also learn about other products such as security lights, power surge units and water heaters.

You can see the other seventeen member cooperatives of Hoosier Energy located on the adjacent map along with many of the power plants and other generation resources that we co-own with the other member cooperatives. 

The Cooperative recently celebrated our 85th Anniversary during the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Cooperative.  As a result of COVID, the 2020 Annual Meeting was suspended, but we were able to hold a "Drive-thru" Annual Meeting in August of 2021 which also included the business meeting and director election of 2020 and 2021 together in one setting.  The recent 2022 meeting was our first "indoors in-person" meeting in two years.  Wayne-White Electric Cooperative recently produced a VIDEO Review to show the many upgrades and improvements to the Cooperative over the 15-Year period from 2006 to 2021, while having no rate increase in over nine years.  You can WATCH the Video at this link on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/y3KDg5N8tuM  

You are invited to read our Mission Statement and the 7 Cooperative Principles by which we do business.  If you are looking to add electric service, you will need to fill out a Member Application or a Business Member Application.  You can also read the Member Policies and our ByLaws online.  In addition to Linemen, Engineers, Customer Service personnel, and Marketing/Member Services staff, WWCEC also has a very agressive vegetation management crew which proactively cycles throughout the 11-county service area, clearing brush, pruning trees, and removing trouble trees, which has dramatically improved the quality of electrical service for our member customers.  Outages have been greatly reduced due to this approach. 

Although normal office hours are Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm, you can reach a live person 24-hours a day, seven days a week, in case of a power outage or emergency need at (618) 842-2196. Today, WWCEC offers much more than just affordable electricity to cooperative members.  For additional details-visit the links for products and services

The national map above indicates the saturation of over 950 Electric Cooperatives throughout the United States.  We are a member-owner of Hoosier Energy as one of (18) electric cooperative member-owners of the Bloomington, Indiana based cooperative.  Our co-ownership in Hoosier Energy gives us more rate stability in uncertain times and a wealth of services that enables us to better serve our distribution member-customers with dependable electric service while assisting with energy efficiency initiatives, rebate programs, and products. Our cooperative has NOT had a residential rate increase in 9 years.  Meanwhile, hundreds of our members have been able to benefit from incentive rebate checks for upgrading their HVAC equipment or hot water heater. Some incentive rebates are as high as $2,500 for HVAC efficiency upgrades.  We also have a generator program incentive for whole-house generators, if you allow us to control it during peak demand tiems of the year. 

Wayne-White is also affiliated with the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives (AIEC) which provides services and programs such ongoing safety training exercises for our linemen, the annual Youth to Washington Tour, and the annual Scholarship program which benefits (14) students statewide with college scholarships valued at $2,000 each.  Applications for the annual scholarships have a deadline of December 31 each school year.

History of Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative

This is where the planning all began...

G.O. Deem is shown standing in the rear of his store in Geff, Illinois where the Village Council held their monthly meetings back in 1936.  It was here where discussions led to steps resulting in calling of REA fieldmen to help create a rural electric cooperative.  At that time, Geff did not have electric lights, being one of thousands of villages in the United States lacking electricity until REA-financed electric cooperatives brought light and power to them.  On September 14, 1936, the nine men named as original directors of the Cooperative were named as incorporators of the Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative, Inc. 

Setting the first pole...

When the first pole was set on the Wayne-White Counties "A" system on April 11, 1937, near Fairfield, this group was present for the event.  Standing, from left:  Frank C. Gray, Sims; Edgar Amrine, Fairfield, Wayne County farm adviser;  C.W. McCullough, Fairfield, project superintendent; Irvin Yohe, Mt. Erie; L.W. Springer, Springerton; Clarence Haegele, president of the Wayne County Farm Bureau; Jerd Smith, mayor of Fairfield; L.W. King, Mill Shoals; Mrs. Bertha Waterman, the Cooperative's first secretary; Ted Smith, C.R. Cento, Decatur contractor who built the first section; E.R. Martin, Burnt Prarie, president of the Cooperative; H.G. French, Mill Shoals, and two unidentified persons.  Kneeling:  Hugh Dobbs, Springfield lawyer who served as the Cooperative's first attorney, and an unidentified person.

Growth of Membership from 1938 through 1944...

When the 1945 annual meeting was held, Manager O.J. Chaney presented his report showing there were 4,111 member-owners in 1944.  The cardboard chart shows the growth of Wayne-White membership from 1938 through 1944.

Groundbreaking of the Fairfield Office...

Harold Shepherd of Albion, president of WWCEC, is shown wielding a shovel during the ground-breaking ceremony for the new headquarters building in December, 1952.  The group consisted of the following persons, from left:  Frank C. Gray, Mr. Shepherd, Evan Williams, L.M. King, L.P. Dolan, G.O. Deem, Tom Marshall, attorney for the Cooperative; Willard Bannon, Bill Allen of Carlinville, architect's engineer; O.J. Chaney, manager; Dale Warren, S.J. Miller, construction superintendent; Jesse Baker, Mrs. Alice Jones, Mrs. Alice Vaughn Mugrage, Mrs. Arlene Atteberry Dunningan, Mrs. Lucille Smith, Mrs. Evelyn Edwards, Mrs. Margo Kincart, and Mrs. Doris Grimes.

Old Certificate of Membership...

This is a copy of an original certificate of membership in the Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative issued in April of 1937.