Rutherford Elec Member Corp

What This Utility Data Tells You

Rutherford Elec Member Corp is a member-owned electric cooperative operating in North Carolina under EIA identifier 16496. It reports service to approximately 75,956 customer accounts and generated about $0.17 billion in annual electric revenue, with a service footprint spanning 50 ZIP codes. Cooperative ownership means the utility is run for the benefit of the ratepayer-members who elect its board, rather than for shareholder returns, which can shift how rate and investment decisions get made.

In 2023, the average Rutherford Elec Member Corp customer experienced 144.4 minutes of power interruptions, a metric called SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index). That keeps this utility below the typical 120–180 minute national benchmark, consistent with a well-hardened distribution system and fast restoration crews. The SAIFI figure, which tracks average outage events per customer, came in at 1.09 for the same period, meaning customers statistically saw about 1 distinct interruption that year. Once major event days (hurricanes, ice storms) are excluded, SAIDI comes down to 97.0 minutes, and the spread against the headline 144.4 indicates how much weather, versus routine infrastructure, drove the outage total.

The EIA dataset includes 4 years of continuous reporting (2020–2023) for Rutherford Elec Member Corp, which lets you see whether reliability is trending up or down rather than judging from a single snapshot. SAIDI has improved from 315.0 to 144.4 minutes over that window, a meaningful direction for prospective customers and regulators watching capital investment outcomes.