ACES is excited to celebrate our 25th anniversary of operations as of February 1, 2024.
Energy markets experienced dramatic changes with the advent of competition in the late 1990s. To assist with overcoming these new challenges, four G&Ts – Buckeye Power, East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC), Southern Illinois Power Cooperative (SIPC), and Wabash Valley Power Alliance (WVPA) – pooled their resources to form ACES to provide a viable solution for achieving economic efficiencies and limiting their portfolio risk by utilizing a single entity to interact in the energy markets on their behalf.
Since its formation, ACES has experienced significant growth and has become a nationally-recognized wholesale energy trading and risk management company that has maintained its cooperative-oriented focus of providing quality services at a reasonable cost by utilizing economies of scale.
ACES has grown from the four founding Members to 24 Members today. ACES started with 18 employees who were on loan from the founding Members and borrowed office space from WVPA. Today, we have more than 300 employees in four offices across the U.S.
While ACES was formed to serve its Members, it also began providing services to Customers in 2002, and today provides services for a broad range of more than 70 Customers, including municipal power utilities, independent power producers, joint action agencies, electric cooperatives, irrigation districts, and other industry participants, in addition to our 24 Members. Additionally, we have expanded our service offerings from a few transaction-focused services to more than 50 services that include consulting, analytical, and strategy services.
ACES is and always has been an extension of our Members’ and Customers’ organizations. ACES’ greatest asset is our people. We hire intelligence and character and develop our employees to be experts in areas that are critical to our Members and Customers. Our employees are devoted to excellence and committed to the long-term successes of our Members and Customers and helping them achieve their missions to provide safe, reliable, and affordable power.
While our Members, Customers, and services have expanded, we have maintained our core values and principals. We continue to strive to be the leader in energy management services and a vital component of our Members’ and Customers’ operations.
We want to thank our Members and Customers for their trust and partnership over the past 25 years. We particularly want to thank our four founding Members for their vision. We would not be where we are today without the support of all our Members and Customers. We look forward to the next 25 years!