Formed in 1938,Cobb Electric Membership Corporation, more commonly known asCobb EMC, is anon-profitelectric utilitycompany serving parts ofCobb,Cherokee,Bartow,Paulding, and small sections ofFulton counties inGeorgia. In 2009, it had total sales of over 3.8 billionkilowatt-hours (13.7 billionmegajoules).
It was founded in 1938 with 489 residential members and 14 business accounts, and now serves about 200,000 homes and businesses (including over 180,000 in northwestmetro Atlanta), making it one of the largestelectric membership corporations in the state and country. However, most residents in Cobb and other counties are customers ofGeorgia Power, while those within thecity limits ofMarietta (the Cobbcounty seat) are customers ofMarietta Power, amunicipal utility run by the city.
Cobb EMC participates in arebate program for customers who installsolar panels.[1] In January 2009, the company joined withGreen Power EMC to buy 17megawatts ofelectric power from a company which upgraded thepower plant at the formerFruit of the Loomfactory inRabun Gap to useloggingbiomass as afuel.[2]
Cobb Energy Management Corporation, usually known asCobb Energy, was created as a for-profitsubsidiary in 1997.
It eventually sparked alawsuit by Cobb EMC members, charging that their money was beingfunneled into the new company, after a 2007exposé by theAtlanta Journal-Constitution.Shareholders prevailed, and won again onappeal to theGeorgia Court of Appeals in April 2010. Cobb Energy was folded back into the non-profit cooperative. Co-op board elections, delayed by the litigation since 2007, were scheduled to resume in the fall of 2011.[3]
In early January 2011, theCEO of Cobb EMC wasarrested and charged with 31 counts ofracketeering andtheft after hisindictment by a countygrand jury in the matter, citing more than 50 million dollars taken from or not paid to the EMC by Cobb Energy.[4]
Prior to these events, the company purchasednaming rights to the newCobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, which still bears the name.