Although most cities had electricity by the mid-1930s, rural Americans were still in the dark. The high cost of building electric distribution lines to serve sparsely populated rural areas was not economical. Then in 1941, with the support of the Rural Electric Administration's oversight and low interest loans, the people of Northwest Florida decided to band together to form a member-owned, not-fo
r-profit utility that would benefit its members. Later that same year, CHELCO members met with 10 other electric cooperatives and formed Alabama Electric Cooperative (now PowerSouth Energy Cooperative), a generation and transmission cooperative established to generate the electricity needed by its member co-ops. Today, CHELCO is headquartered in DeFuniak Springs, and our service territory encompasses mainly Walton and Okaloosa counties, in addition to portions of western Holmes and eastern Santa Rosa counties.
