Manager’s Message – October 2026
PrintCelebrating National Co-Op Month
Every October, National Co-op Month celebrates cooperatives as trusted, people-centered businesses built to strengthen communities.
Cooperatives are led by the people they serve and are created to meet a specific need. Since 1935, your member-owned electric cooperative has strived to provide reliable electrical service in a safe and cost-effective manner.
Belonging to an electric cooperative is different from simply being a customer who purchases electricity from a utility company. As a Northern Lights member, you are part of a not-for-profit cooperative built to serve the people and communities at the end of our power lines. And those lines stretch a long way.
Electric cooperatives typically maintain significantly more miles of power line per member than other types of electric utilities. On average, electric cooperatives serve about seven to eight members per mile of line, compared with approximately 34 to 35 customers per mile for investor-owned utilities. Northern Lights serves a little less than eight members per mile, across nearly 3,000 miles of line.
This means that the costs to build, maintain, and upgrade equipment are split among fewer people. Our crews cover a large service territory with harder-to-reach locations, including mountainous and heavily forested terrain.
Delivering power to the most rural parts of North Idaho and Western Montana takes hard work, dedication, and a long-term commitment that only a member-owned cooperative is willing to provide.
Northern Lights was founded to bring the electricity needed from distant points to our rural neighbors and friends, places where no other utilities wanted to go. We are proud to say that cooperative spirit lives on today.
Cooperatives come in many forms—from electric utilities to credit unions to farm supply stores—and we all share a common purpose: meeting the needs of the members we serve.
We’re proud to be your electric cooperative and one of many cooperatives in our region working to strengthen local communities, keep decisions close to home, and invest in long-term success.
During National Cooperative Month, we celebrate not only what makes the cooperative business model different, but the members who make it possible.
Thank you for your continued trust and partnership.
Sincerely,
Annie Terracciano
General Manager
