Valley Electric is a nonprofit electric utility headquartered in Pahrump, Nevada. Incorporated in 1965, VEA has steadfastly adhered to the co-op principles of doing business throughout its history.

Farmers Started VEA

Although the VEA service territory has become more suburbanized, farmers in the Pahrump and Amargosa valleys initially organized and formed the co-op in 1963. It was first known as the Amargosa Valley Cooperative. The co-op still serves substantial irrigation power loads in the Amargosa and Fish Lake Valley. VEAs residential members are the co-ops biggest single consumer group.

Utilities Join To Form VEA

In the early 1960s, three other small utilities joined with the Amargosa Valley Co-op to eventually form VEA. The Amargosa Valley Cooperative bought the Amargosa Power Company and also the Beatty Utility Company. The White Mountain Electric Co-op in Fish Lake Valley then voted to use the AVCs management, office, engineering and other services to lower its costs. In November 1964, these entities consolidated and on April 8, 1965, they incorporated as Valley Electric Association, in large part because a single, united utility made it easier to secure funding for what the new co-op needed most -- a transmission line.

REA Finances First Line

It was the mission of the Rural Electrification Administration, which then President Franklin D. Roosevelt had started in the mid-1930s, to electrify rural America. In May 1962, REA Administrator Norman Clapp approved a $3.94 million construction loan to the Amargosa Valley Co-op to build a 138 kilovolt (kV) transmission line; which was completed and energized in March 1963.

VEA Serves a Large Area

VEAs service territory is larger now than when it was formed and it includes more than 6,800 square miles, located mainly along the California-Nevada border, with the majority of it in Nevada. In the south, the service area starts in Sandy Valley, southwest of Las Vegas, and extends for more than 250 miles to Fish Lake Valley and beyond (roughly halfway to Reno), in the north. The co-ops service area is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. In early 1963, when the Amargosa Valley Co-op built the 138 kV transmission line and transported lower-cost hydroelectric-generated energy from dams on the Colorado River into then sparsely-populated Nye County, Nevada, the co-op served just 607 meters.

Growth Spurs a New Line

The 138 kV transmission line served the co-op well in a primary capacity until member and load growth in the service area forced VEA to build a 230 kV transmission line. Construction on the 230 kV line started in June 1995 and it was completed and energized nine months later. In the summer of 1996, power use in the service area skyrocketed. Without the new 230 kV line, the 138 kV transmission line would not have been able to handle consumer demand.

Headquarters Moves

For many years, our main office was located in Las Vegas. In 1981, the co-op built a new office in Pahrump, a central location within our service territory. That facility served the co-op well until load growth required a larger building. VEA's current headquarters campus opened for business in October 1997.

VEA Looks to the Future

Planning for increased load demand and accommodating member growth are among the challenges VEA faces as it looks to the future. VEA does not generate the electrical energy it supplies to members and buys most of its power on the open power market. The company strives to find the lowest cost wholesale power available to minimize rate increases to VEA members. At present, VEA provides electricity to over 17,000 memberships and to a total of 22,000 meters.

VEA Embraces the Future

In 2012, VEA realized a need to find a more cost effective way to plan infrastructure and to expand the grid to make room for renewable energy. The company, currently under NV Energy's Balancing Authority Area (BAA), determined it would be better served by exiting the NV Energy BAA and merging with the California Independent System of Operators (CAISO). Moving into the CAISO BAA expands the opportunities and benefits for VEA members on both sides of the Nevada/California border. This bold move will allow VEA to have a lead role in building and strengthening regional reliability and will save VEA members money.

Valley Electric Association, Inc. (VEA) is member owned and a non-profit organization. Our members make up what Valley Electric is and stands for.

That means service at cost - which provides you capital credits, local ownership and governance. We are a co-op and are owned by those we serve.