A Look At Our Beginnings and Growth
1946
Organization of eight original members to form Central Iowa Power Cooperative. Original Operating & Transmission Agreement with Iowa Electric Light & Power.
1950
Prairie Creek Unit #1 begins operation. In 1951, Prairie Creek Unit 2 comes on-line and in two short years, the CIPCO system is serving 43 substations and 30,000 farm families.
1958
CIPCO's application submitted for our first emission free source of power through Western Area Power Administration (WAPA).
1968
Southwestern Federated and CIPCO merger complete adding five new members systems and acquiring Summit Lake Generating Station in Creston, Iowa.
1969
South Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association (SIMECA) is accepted as a CIPCO member. Today, 15 municipalities constitute this federation with the unique partnership that purchases power and energy collectively from CIPCO
1974
Iowa's only nuclear power plant comes online; CIPCO's 20% ownership of the Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC).
1978
Construction begins on a new headquarters facility in Cedar Rapids and Walter Scott Energy Center Unit #3, Council Bluffs, a majority owned and operated facility by MidAmerican Energy, comes online with CIPCO owning 11%.
1982-1983
Hawkeye Power Cooperative reorganized for Eastern Iowa's membership in CIPCO allowing the Fair Station generating facility to be leased to CIPCO by Eastern Iowa Light & Power Cooperative. Growth in generation portfolio increase again in 1983 when Louisa Generating Station came on-line with CIPCO owning 4.6% of this MidAmerican owned and operated facility.
1987
CIPCO begins conversion of tape translation system to personal computer platform.
1993
CIPCO Vision statement adopted: The CIPCO Systems, through unity of purpose and progressive leadership, will exceed the competition in service excellence, product value and resource deployment.
1998
CIPCO joins Touchstone Energy®, a national branding initiative while working with industry leaders in drafting consensus legislation to introduce open competition among electric utilities.
2002
CIPCO is recognized for achieving the 1 million-hour safety milestone without a lost-time injury.
2005
Five-year transmission "reliability factor" exceeding 99.99%. CIPCO maintains its 20% ownership of the DAEC facility as FPL Energy purchases 70% of the plant that was owned by Interstate Power/Alliant Energy.
2007
Walter Scott, Jr., Energy Center #4 begins production. A coal fueled 818 MW capacity generation plant, operated by MidAmerican Energy. This plant was named "2007 Power Plant of the Year" by Power magazine.
2008-2012
Several purchase power agreements completed for wind generation throughout our system territory. These locations include: Elk Wind Farm, Greeley; Hawkeye Wind Farm, Hawkeye; Rippey Wind Farm, Grand Junction; and Pioneer Grove Wind Farm, Mechanicsville.
2013
CIPCO continues it's fuel mix diversification with a purchase power agreement for 100% of the production output of the Linn County Solid Waste Agency, captured methane gas-to-energy system, located in Marion, Iowa.
Fair Station Generation facility is retired after 56 years in operation.
2016
The launch of the first utility-scale solar project in Iowa. Owned and operated by CIPCO, these six member sites are located in Osceola, Pella, Marshalltown, Urbana, Wilton and Corning with generation capacity of 6.4 MW.
2018
NextEra Energy Resources and Alliant Energy announce early closure of Duane Arnold Energy Center in October 2020.
Heartland Divide, CIPCO's largest wind energy project comes online in December.
CIPCO announces plans for Iowa's largest solar project and the repowering of Summit Lake Generating Station.
2019
CIPCO employees celebrate a rare industry safety milestone of working more than two million hours without a lost-time accident over the course of ten years.
2020
Unprecedented derecho hits CIPCO system. Within one week and with the assistance of mutual aid from neighboring G&T's and contractors, 575 downed poles were replaced, and the equivalent of about 30 miles of line, power was restored through the most critical transmission lines.
This weather event caused an even earlier closure of NextEra Energy Resources, Duane Arnold Energy Center due to catastrophic damage to the facility.
2021
Wapello Solar reaches commercial operation in March. Located on nearly 800 acres in Louisa County, with 100 MW generation capacity.
Summit Lake natural gas expansion project complete, for this CIPCO owned peaking plant.
December 1, BHE Renewables announce completion of its 54 MW Independence Wind Energy project near Ryan, IA.
2022
CIPCO introduces new travel crew; an in-house team of linemen to replace the work of for-profit contractors historically used on transmission projects.
2023
Bill Cherrier, Executive Vice President & CEO announces his retirement effective the end of May. CIPCO Board announces the promotion of Andrew St. John to EVP and CEO after serving the past seven years as Vice President & CFO. Dave Nicholson is named new Vice President and CFO in September.
DOE awards CIPCO with battery storage grant to benefit rural communities within our member territory.
