Brazos Electric Cooperative

Brazos means "arms" in Spanish, and the generation and transmission arms of Brazos Electric Power Cooperative reach across 68 Texas counties. It serves 16 member/owner distribution cooperatives and one municipality in Northern and Central Texas. Brazos Electric Power annually generates (through its four power stations) and/or accesses from other power marketers some 3,655 MW of electric power. The cooperative's members include Comanche Electric Cooperative Association, Heart of Texas Electric Co-op (McGregor), Mid-South Synergy (Navasota), United Coop Services (Cleburne), and Wise Electric (Decatur).

Brazos Electric Power is the largest generation and transmission cooperative in Texas. Its service region stretches from the Greater Houston area to Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle.

The cooperative is managed by a board of directors on which each of its member cooperatives has a representative. The board's ongoing strategy is to find ways to generate, buy, and transmit power at low costs and with high reliability.

Benefitting from federal government support, in 2010 the co-op was selected by USDA Rural Development's Rural Utilities Service to get a $438.9 million loan guarantee to allow it to build 237 miles of new transmission lines and improve 52 miles of existing transmission lines.

Founded in 1941, Brazos Electric Power was the state's first electricity generation and transmission cooperative.