CCS Members Only

Continental Cooperative Services
P.O. Box 1266, Harrisburg, PA 17108-1266
PHONE: 717/920-1111
From Illinois: 888/801-3069
FAX: 717/234-1309

Continental Cooperative Services

  Continental Cooperative Services (CCS), based in Harrisburg, Pa., was created in March 2000, the result of a strategic alliance between Allegheny Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CCS/Allegheny), the wholesale power supplier to Pennsylvania and New Jersey electric cooperatives, and Illinois' Soyland Power Cooperative, Inc. (CCS/Soyland). CCS marks the first time two geographically non-contiguous generation and transmission cooperatives, or G&Ts, have joined forces in this fashion.

  Operating in two time zones, CCS can also tap the benefits of seasonal and peak diversity, providing affiliated distribution cooperatives in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with lower prices and risk than they would experience otherwise.

  "The dynamics of a competitive electricity marketplace, where long-term contracts are a thing of the past, favor larger suppliers that can generate and purchase power at favorable wholesale prices," explains Frank Betley, CCS president & CEO. "The bottom line is that this alliance helps us achieve greater negotiating leverage, creating a stronger, more flexible and less risk-averse organization ready to meet the challenges of customer choice."

  General and Administrative cost savings from the alliance are augmented by additional synergies expected since CCS will operate in three electric reliability regions. Those regions are the Mid-Atlantic Area Council (MAAC), covering two-thirds of Pennsylvania, all of New Jersey, Delaware, the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia; the Mid-America Interconnected Network (MAIN), covering all of Illinois and portions of Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan; and the East Central Area Reliability Coordination Agreement (ECAR), covering western Pennsylvania and western Maryland, all of Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, as well as parts of Kentucky, Michigan and Virginia.

CCS is governed by a 25-member board of directors, composed of one representative from each affiliated distribution cooperative in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The organization is led by a senior management team.