History of Copper Valley Electric Association & Copper Valley Telecom

Copper Valley Electric Association (CVEA) and Copper Valley Telecom (CVT) are both member-owned cooperatives that serve the rural communities of the Valdez and Copper Basin districts. Local consumers in both districts are also owners of these cooperatives, meaning they elect board members annually and share in the governance and benefits of being part of a locally owned cooperative. Today, in 2026, CVEA and CVT are two separate cooperatives with separate services, staff, and mission statements; however, these two organizations originally worked together under one umbrella.

In 1952, a group of Copper Basin residents gathered to bring power to rural Alaska under the U.S. Rural Electrification Administration (REA). In May of 1955, this group officially organized and became a recognized cooperative called Copper Valley Electric Association. In February 1959, CVEA successfully supplied electricity to the residents in the Copper Basin with a single diesel power plant and 48 miles of line.

At the beginning of 1964, CVEA expanded its service throughout the Copper Basin and into Valdez. However, on March 27, 1964, the Good Friday Earthquake destroyed the majority of what is now known as “Old Town Valdez.” Following the natural disaster, CVEA purchased, rebuilt the electric systems, and expanded service to what is now known as “New Valdez.” Although Copper Valley Telecom was formed in 1961, CVEA helped organize CVT in Valdez throughout 1964 in an effort to bring phone service to the residents in the same area served by CVEA.

Within a decade of bridging electric and telephone services, the demand for these services had grown so much in the Copper Basin and Valdez districts that the Board of Directors elected to split the electric and telephone cooperatives in July 1974, allowing each organization to focus on their core services. Copper Valley Telecom solidified its headquarters in Valdez, where it remains today, while Copper Valley Electric Association maintained its headquarters in the Copper Basin, where it remains headquartered today.

Since 1974, CVT expanded from traditional phone service to high-speed internet connectivity, including fiber, wireless voice, and LTE data services. Today, CVT serves schools, libraries, local businesses, and residents in rural Alaska with modern telecommunications technology.

After the separation, CVEA focused on broadening its ability to provide reliable and affordable power to its members and built the Solomon Gulch Hydroelectric Project, which became CVEA’s primary source of power by 1982. In 2000, CVEA also teamed up with Petro Star to build a five-megawatt cogeneration plant. Years later, CVEA built a secondary hydroelectric project, Allison Creek, which became operational in 2016. Today, CVEA provides power generation, transmission, and distribution to thousands of members in Valdez and the Copper Basin, spanning 540 miles of line across its service territory.

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Questions?
Contact: Morgan Melton, CCO | mmelton@cvea.org