Annual Meeting 2025:

Join Us at the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Click here to learn more.

About Us

It is a member-owned electric cooperative committed to providing reliable, affordable electricity and quality service to homes and businesses across southeast Georgia. 

With a focus on community, innovation, and customer care, Canoochee EMC supports local development and strives to meet the evolving energy needs of its members.

about us

There’s a vibrant new energy taking shape across America; members like you are transforming rural and small communities.  

Canoochee EMC is an electric cooperative, built by the communities we serve to deliver reliable, sustainable and affordable energy. And, because we answer to local members like you, rather than out-of-town shareholders, our electric cooperative has a unique understanding of our local needs. In fact, our leaders and employees live right here in the community.  

Canoochee EMC is a community-focused organization, providing jobs and investing in the community while also giving back to the community through Operation Round Up, and a Youth Leadership Tour to Washington, D.C.  

Being a member of a cooperative distinguishes you from other electric utility consumers, as well as other business relationships, in important ways.

  1. Co-op leaders are members of our local community. Our nine board members live right here in our local area and are elected by co-op members just like you. Board members serve three-year terms and elections are held at our annual meeting each fall. 
     
  2. We belong to the communities we serve. Since we are a cooperative, any excess revenue is shared back with members, over time.  
     
  3. We follow the same seven cooperative principles that all cooperative businesses follow.  

Though we are local and cover parts of ten southeastern Georgia counties, we’re also part of something bigger. Across the country, electric cooperatives work together to restore power during major outages, develop new technologies and build infrastructure that benefits us all.  

We’re always looking for new ways to help our members save energy, save money and take advantage of the technology that’s changing the way we live and work.  

The opportunity to create something new here, while embracing traditional community values, has never been greater. It’s a passion we share with you, our members, for making our community a place we’re all proud to call home.  

That’s the source of our new energy at Canochee EMC.

Canoochee EMC: 1938 to Today

Over the decades, Canoochee EMC has embraced innovation, expanded its services, and remained committed to community values. 

Today, it continues to power homes, support local growth, and lead with a focus on safety, service, and sustainability.

Canoochee EMC: 1938 to Today

In the late 1930's, a few citizens of Tattnall County decided that they wanted electricity and they were tired of waiting for it.  Mrs. C.P. Durrence was an important figure in the beginning of our co-op, and she would be proud of what she helped to create.

Canoochee EMC was first incorporated in 1938, bringing electricity to the rural areas of Southeast Georgia.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal brought the Rural Electrification Act (REA), and with it places like our region were first able to provide power to rural America.  We were part of this program, the REA.

Today we serve 15,000 members in parts of nine Southeast Georgia counties and we also maintain the electrical system for Hunter Army Airfield and Fort Stewart.

Touchstone Energy Cooperatives

It promotes innovation, sustainability, and cooperative values across the U.S.

Touchstone Energy Cooperatives
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Touchstone Energy® Cooperatives is a national network of electric cooperatives across 46 states that provides resources and leverages partnerships to help member cooperatives and their employees better engage and serve their members. By working together, Touchstone Energy cooperatives stand as a source of power and information to their 32 million member-owners every day.

Electric cooperatives were originally established to provide electricity to rural America. Now co-op territories have expanded into suburban and some urban areas of the country, which makes electric co-ops the largest electric utility network in the nation. Despite this growth, your local Touchstone Energy cooperative is owned and operated by the members it serves, giving everyone in your community a democratic voice in how the co-op is run.

Community-friendly values mixed with the cooperative business model are what make electric co-ops strong. As a not-for-profit entity, members know they can trust their electric co-op, because it was created to deliver on the promise of providing safe, reliable and affordable electricity to member-owners – not to generate money for shareholders.

What Makes Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Different

Touchstone Energy is the national brand identity for the extensive electric cooperative network. All members exemplify high standards of service because they uphold the four core values of integrity, accountability, innovation and commitment to community. Touchstone Energy co-ops simply put members first and always have a local, member-driven, community focused vision. 

Across the country, local Touchstone Energy co-ops work to improve members’ quality of life by taking a leadership role in community and economic development projects, forging strong partnerships with business members, as well as generously donating time, energy and resources to their local communities. The Touchstone Energy logo means the cooperative understands the power of human connections and is the power of a national network, working in your neighborhood.

Touchstone Energy Cooperatives are:

  1. Part of the largest electric utility network in the nation
     
  2. Total more than 700 local systems in 46 states
     
  3. Serve more than 30.5 million distribution cooperative member-owners
     
  4. Serve nearly 40 generation and transmission cooperatives

The Seven Cooperative Principles

The Seven Cooperative Principles are fundamental guidelines by which cooperatives worldwide operate. They include voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, members' economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community.

Careers
  1. Voluntary and Open Membership Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
     
  2. Democratic Member Control Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. The elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner.
     
  3. Members’ Economic Participation Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
     
  4. Autonomy and Independence Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.
     
  5. Education, Training, and Information Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public, particularly young people and opinion leaders, about the nature and benefits of cooperation.
     
  6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.
     
  7. Concern for Community While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies accepted by their members.