With its headquarters at Velva and a service center in Minot, Verendrye has increased its customer numbers dramatically since its beginning before the start of World War II. At that time the member-owned cooperative had about 140 customers, said Brad Doll, an engineer with Verendrye.

“Pretty much everything stopped when World War II started and the majority of our system was built out after World War II,” Doll said.

Today, the cooperative has 17,000 meters and provides electricity to homes, farms and businesses in seven counties including parts of some counties and the outskirts of Minot.

Doll spoke recently to members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce’s Energy Committee. Local farmers and ranchers formed Verendrye Electric Cooperative in 1939 so they could have electricity.

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The formation came when the Rural Electrification Act came about (it passed in 1936) and people wanted electricity, Doll said.

He said the cooperative was named after French explorer Pierre de La Verendrye who was the first white explorer to enter the area from Canada to explore the Souris River Basin.

“That was 60 years before Lewis and Clark. Actually Velva is called the Star City because it is the lowest point on the Souris River and back then when they made maps they put a star on the lowest point of the river,” he said.

Doll has been an engineer with Verendrye for about 22 years. Originally from New Salem, his career has been in either the electronics industry or the electrical industry.

He said the cooperative model is: distribution, transmission, generation.

“Verendrye buys all of its power from Basin Electric. We’ve got a long-term power contract with Basin Electric,” Doll said.

Basin Electric, a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative headquartered in Bismarck, was formed in 1961 to provide supplemental power to a consortium of rural electric cooperatives. Basin Electric’s area includes nine states from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. The cooperative’s energy portfolio is comprised of coal, gas, oil, nuclear, distributed and renewable energy, including wind power, according to its website.

“When I started 20 years ago it was coal, hydro and oil,” Doll said. He said that is changing, citing the other types of energy in Basin Electric’s portfolio.

“For Verendrye our transmission cooperative is Central Power, located here in Minot on 20th Avenue,” Doll said.

Central Power Electric Cooperative, a wholesale power supply and transmission cooperative, was organized in 1949 to generate power for its member rural electric distribution cooperatives.

Central Power’s job is to provide transmission for six cooperatives. It covers roughly about one-third of North Dakota, Doll said.

Verendrye Electric also serves Minot Air Force Base where it has about 2,300 service points which include residential, business or military facilities.

The Minot base is the first AFB to have its main utilities – electrical, water/wastewater and gas – privatized.

Verendrye Electric was awarded a 50-year contract to purchase, maintain and operate electrical distribution infrastructure on the base. The cooperative also constructed a 4,000-square-foot building at the base that includes an office and storage for trucks and inventory.

“The world is changing,” said Doll. He said cooperatives like Verendrye won’t be doing business like they did when he started 20 years ago.