Skip to main content

CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1.800.951.6088

Pay My Bill
Member Portal
Report an Outage
Text Alerts
Home
Menu
  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
      • 2025 Haywood EMC Director Election
    • Management Team
    • Employment
    • Cooperative Principles
      • Cooperative Difference Video
    • Service Territory Map
    • News Posts
  • Member Services
    • Capital Credits
      • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Billing and Payment Information
      • Easy Ways to Pay
      • Delinquent Bill Timeline
    • Service Rules & Regulations
      • Smart Meter Energy Usage Data Privacy/Security Advisory
      • Title VI Statement of Non-discrimination
    • New Service
      • Application for Electric Service
    • Rate Schedules
      • EV Rates
      • Time Of Day Rates
    • Safety
      • Storm Preparedness
      • Safety Quiz
      • Tree Trimming
    • Service Forms
      • Service Order Form
      • Medical Condition And Equipment Form
    • Text Outage Alerts
  • Products
    • Generators
      • Generator Loan
      • Generlink
    • Heat Pump/Weatherization Loan
      • Heat Pumps
  • Your Community
    • Bright Ideas Grants
    • Project HEMC
      • Project HEMC Energy Assistance Application
    • Around the Community
      • USDA Rural Economic Development
    • The Haywood EMC Podcast
    • Basketball Camp Scholarship
    • Carolina Country Magazine
    • News
    • Haywood EMC Scholarship
    • Youth Tour
  • Energy Efficiency
    • Electric Vehicles
    • NC GreenPower
    • Energy Star Home Advisor
  • Renewable Energy
    • Community Solar Program
    • Renewable Energy Site Assessments
      • Solar Site Assessment
      • Hydro Site Assessment
      • Wind Turbine Site Assessment
    • Renewable Rates
      • RGR Rate
      • RGS Rate
    • Solar with Haywood EMC
      • Certificate Of Completion
      • Typical Components Of A Solar Interconnected System
    • Contracts With Haywood EMC
    • Renewable Energy Information
    • Interconnection With Haywood EMC
      • Interconnect Application

About Us

Haywood EMC is your local Cooperative.

Haywood EMC has been serving the rural residents of Western North Carolina with affordable, reliable, safe services, and open communications for over 80 years. As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, the member-owners of Haywood EMC have a say in everything the cooperative does through a democratically elected Board of Directors. 

The Board of Directors represent member-owners in 7 districts across the 6 counties we serve in Western North Carolina, as well as parts of Rabun County, GA, and Oconee County, SC. 

Haywood EMC History:

When a small group of residents in the Pigeon, East Fork, and Cecil Townships of Haywood County began wrestling with the idea of providing themselves and their neighbors with electricity to make life much easier, they didn’t waste any time turning their ideas into actions. They knew that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed an Executive Order for the establishment of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) to provide money to build electric lines through the rural areas of America and they wanted to be able to enjoy the conveniences already available in city homes and businesses by taking advantage of the government’s assistance. The private electric companies had refused to extend their lines to the rural areas because it would not be profitable. So organizing an Electric Cooperative was their only hope of getting electricity any time soon.

The first recorded meeting of the organizers occurred on October 20, 1938, at Rickman’s Store in Cruso with William B. Poston, Ira H. Cogburn, Mrs. Etta P. (McCall) Grogan, D.L. Pless, Mrs. E.B. Rickman, C.M. Deaver, and Watson Howell in attendance. A proposed charter for the Cruso Mutual Electric Company was presented at the meeting and subsequently filed with the Secretary of State on October 31, 1938.

There was a lot of work to be done to get things moving as quickly as possible. The by-laws had to be drawn up to meet the qualifications of a Cooperative as defined by the REA. Each family had to be approached about becoming a member of the Cooperative and right-of-way easements had to be secured from the landowners so that the power lines could be built across their property.

The Cooperative’s formal organizational meeting took place on the evening of January 19, 1939. The meeting was conducted by lamplight in the feed room of Rickman’s warehouse across the road from Rickman’s Store. The name of Cruso Mutual Electric Company was approved and the by-laws were adopted. The seven organizers present at the October 20, 1938 meeting were again present and paid a membership fee of five dollars to become the first official member-owners of the Cooperative.

The Cooperative immediately submitted its first loan application to REA for building 37 miles of line to serve approximately 170 members in the Bethel, Cruso, and Lake Logan communities. Upon receiving REA loan approval, line construction began and on August 23, 1939, at 10:00 a.m. the power was switched on at the Carolina Power & Light Company metering point and it was no longer necessary for some rural residents to clean blackened lamp globes each day for lighting in their homes.

During its first year of operation, the Cooperative had three different superintendents or managers. Carter Trull was the first, followed by Oscar Briggs and in February 1940, J.W. Howell became manager. On August 10, 1940, the Cruso Mutual Electric Company was re-chartered under the name of Cruso Electric Membership Corporation in order to receive a greater tax break through the North Carolina Membership Act.

More and more rural residents were anxious to receive electricity. In the fall of 1940, the second REA loan amounting to $135,000 was granted to provide electric service to over 600 new members in the Beaverdam, Clyde, Fines Creek, Iron Duff, Jonathan Creek, and Ivy Hill Townships. Bethel-Cruso would no longer be the center of activity so the Cooperative office was moved to Clyde. J.W. Howell resigned as superintendent and was replaced by Jim Moore. Because of the extensive work being done in Haywood County, the Cooperative was re-chartered as Haywood Electric Membership Corporation on November 30, 1943. The Cooperative office was moved to Main Street Waynesville where it remained until moving to its new headquarters facility in the spring of 1953, at 1560 Asheville Road, Waynesville.

The lack of building materials curtailed line construction during World War II. The board of directors changed the by-laws to allow for expansion into other counties and as soon as the war ended, progress resumed. In 1943, the Cooperative purchased the Hominy Power Company in Buncombe Country and in 1945 secured electric contracts with Nantahala Power & Light Company and Duke Power Company for supplying wholesale power to Transylvania, Macon and Jackson Counties in North Carolina. Service was later extended into Rabun County, Georgia, and Oconee County, South Carolina.

In September 1945, Superintendent Jim Moore resigned and was replaced by R.C. Sheffield, the Cooperative's first full-time bookkeeper. Sheffield managed the Cooperative until 1974 at which time John W. Browning assumed the position.

Providing reliable electric service at the lowest possible cost to rural residents was the basis for the beginning of Haywood Electric Membership Corporation. The Cooperative is still operated on the same basis today. However, it has not been an easy path of growth for Haywood EMC. The Cooperative’s service area contains some of the most rugged, mountainous terrains in the state thus the cost of providing electric service is more costly here, especially in the areas of right-of-way clearing and maintenance. Every avenue for cutting expenses must be explored.

The determination of the small group of rural Haywood County residents to have electricity over 80 years ago has resulted in electric service to approximately 28,000 meters today.

Haywood EMC moved into their headquarters located at 376 Grindstone Road, Waynesville in July 2009 and is now in their 85th year of serving the citizens of Western North Carolina. Haywood EMC is governed by a Board of Directors who are also served by the Cooperative and represents the Co-ops seven directorate districts.

Your cooperative is proud to be serve each member-owner day in and day out and looks forward to providing electricity - and much more - in the communities we call home for years to come. 

linemen
Back to Top

Quick Links

  • Contact Us
  • Our History
  • Legal Info
  • Privacy Policy

Waynesville Physical Address

376 Grindstone Road
Waynesville, NC 28785
(828) 452-2281 or (800) 951-6088
(828) 926-4290 Fax

Lake Toxaway Physical Address

298 Blue Ridge Road
Lake Toxaway, NC 28747
(828) 966-4215
(828) 883-3874 Fax

Follow along on Social Media

©2025 Haywood EMC. All Rights Reserved.

  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
      • 2025 Haywood EMC Director Election
    • Management Team
    • Employment
    • Cooperative Principles
      • Cooperative Difference Video
    • Service Territory Map
    • News Posts
  • Member Services
    • Capital Credits
      • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Billing and Payment Information
      • Easy Ways to Pay
      • Delinquent Bill Timeline
    • Service Rules & Regulations
      • Smart Meter Energy Usage Data Privacy/Security Advisory
      • Title VI Statement of Non-discrimination
    • New Service
      • Application for Electric Service
    • Rate Schedules
      • EV Rates
      • Time Of Day Rates
    • Safety
      • Storm Preparedness
      • Safety Quiz
      • Tree Trimming
    • Service Forms
      • Service Order Form
      • Medical Condition And Equipment Form
    • Text Outage Alerts
  • Products
    • Generators
      • Generator Loan
      • Generlink
    • Heat Pump/Weatherization Loan
      • Heat Pumps
  • Your Community
    • Bright Ideas Grants
    • Project HEMC
      • Project HEMC Energy Assistance Application
    • Around the Community
      • USDA Rural Economic Development
    • The Haywood EMC Podcast
    • Basketball Camp Scholarship
    • Carolina Country Magazine
    • News
    • Haywood EMC Scholarship
    • Youth Tour
  • Energy Efficiency
    • Electric Vehicles
    • NC GreenPower
    • Energy Star Home Advisor
  • Renewable Energy
    • Community Solar Program
    • Renewable Energy Site Assessments
      • Solar Site Assessment
      • Hydro Site Assessment
      • Wind Turbine Site Assessment
    • Renewable Rates
      • RGR Rate
      • RGS Rate
    • Solar with Haywood EMC
      • Certificate Of Completion
      • Typical Components Of A Solar Interconnected System
    • Contracts With Haywood EMC
    • Renewable Energy Information
    • Interconnection With Haywood EMC
      • Interconnect Application