Carroll EMC’s origins trace back to 1935 when the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This New Deal agency was created to bring the same comforts to rural Americans — such as electric lights to extend the day and electric motors to ease the daily workload — that city residents had been enjoying for nearly three decades.

The rural desire for electricity was passionate, however, the means elusive. Vast distances between homes and farms made extending electricity to rural areas costly, prompting city-based electric utilities to deem them unprofitable.

The REA helped to bring electricity to rural America through electric cooperatives – private partnerships owned and controlled by the people they serve. By the end of 1936 nearly 100 electric cooperatives in 26 states had been formed. The Carroll Rural Electric Association (later changed to Carroll EMC) was among them. A young Carrollton attorney, Robert D. Tisinger, led the local march to bring light to the western Georgia countryside. He visited with local farmers and rural leaders to drum up interest. When an organizational meeting was held in August 1936, it attracted 400 to 500 people interested in forming and joining the proposed electric cooperative.

With a $118,000 loan from the REA, construction commenced in March to erect the first 117 miles of a rural electric system to serve rural Carroll and Heard counties. The new cooperative flipped the switch to energize the first section of lines on July 31, serving 334 members.

The Corporation encountered challenges prompted by World War II and disastrous weather conditions in 1960. In spite of this, the demand for electricity was increasing by the mid-1950s. In 1982, Carroll EMC, with over 2,700 miles of line, was serving 21,000 homes, businesses, and other local structures. Among the first lines run were one south to Tyus and Roosterville in Heard County, one to Hickory Level, and one north on Bremen Road to Bowdon Junction. The Roopville area was already being served by the Georgia Power Company.

From these humble beginnings, Carroll EMC grew into a state-of-the-art electric utility serving some 52,000 accounts in seven counties with more than 5,491 miles of power lines connecting them all together. The cooperative’s membership base has changed dramatically from primarily farmers to an ever-increasing number of urban, suburban, and commercial accounts. While retaining its rural farm heritage, Carroll EMC now serves many of the new residential subdivisions and commercial areas outside of metro Atlanta.