Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation (DEMEC)
Delaware Municipal Electric Corporation, Inc. (DEMEC) is a public corporation constituted as a Joint Action Agency and a wholesale electric utility. DEMEC represents the nine municipal electric distribution utilities located in the state of Delaware. The creation of DEMEC was made possible by an act of the Delaware General Assembly on June 6, 1978, and the entity was incorporated on July 12, 1979. The members of DEMEC comprise all the major towns in Delaware except Wilmington. The DEMEC members are: Clayton, Dover, Lewes, Middletown, Milford, Newark, New Castle, Seaford, and Smyrna.

About 29 similar Joint Action Agencies exist in the United States. In total, there are over 2,000 municipal electric utilities in operation in the United States today. The municipal electric utilities and Joint Action Agencies are nationally represented by the American Public Power Association (APPA), (PublicPower.org).

The ultimate mission of DEMEC is to advance the principles of public power community ownership and provide competitive, reliable energy supply and services to our member’s stakeholders and customers.

DEMEC is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors, with one director from each of the nine member municipal electric utilities. The responsibility for day-to-day operations of the Agency resides with a President appointed by the Board. The President directs the efforts of the staff members and various contractual relationships in place to meet the service requirements of the members.

The nine DEMEC member utilities combined serve about 67,200 end-use meters and a population of about 129,217, with a combined peak demand of 468 MW in 2016. The DEMEC member distribution systems vary in size and character. The largest is Dover, with 23,200 meters, while the smallest, Clayton, has only 1,372 meters. The City of Newark is the second largest municipality in the DEMEC service territory with a peak load of 93.4MW and over 13,000 meters serving 33,000 residents.

Eight of the nine members receive 100% of their power requirements from DEMEC and one member receives partial requirements service. DEMEC supplies these requirements from a portfolio of owned generation assets, including utility scale solar and wind generation facilities, bilateral contracts with third-party suppliers, and through participation in the PJM Interconnection, LLC regional markets. (See their website at pjm.com).

In addition to power supply, DEMEC provides legal and technical consulting services to its members, as well as representation in the federal and regional arenas regarding electric industry regulation and operation. DEMEC provides its members with the benefits of joint and combined buying power. DEMEC also assists member utilities with technical and professional training programs, project development, customer retention, economic development, customer education, capital finance, infrastructure improvements and technical information sharing efforts for improved operating efficiency and reliability in their individual systems.

DEMEC maintains a strong balance sheet and efficient, well-managed business operations. Moody's Investors Services, Standard & Poor's Corporation, and Fitch Ratings have assigned ratings of "A2", "A", and "A", respectively, to DEMEC.

Lower rates, efficient service, competitive price and performance, and strong financial health are all things that Newark brings to the table through the benefits of being a Joint Action Agency and public power provider.

Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, and Demand Response
The City of Newark partnered with DEMEC to create the McKees Solar Park off Cleveland Ave to generate 230kW of renewable energy. The facility tops a former landfill, putting land that was once unusable to good use. This is a community-owned solar resource that provides residents and businesses with the opportunity to participate in using solar energy if they choose.

DEMEC also supports individual residential and commercial energy efficiency improvements through several resources available on DEMEC's Energy Efficiency page. If a customer is interested in voluntarily reducing energy consumption during peak energy usage times, DEMEC offers a Demand Response program to help lower the overall peak demand and in return costs the community less to get power.

DEMEC represents its members on the Delaware Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) to discuss current and potential energy efficiency programs and state energy savings targets.