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TODO
Power and Progress Over the Last 85 Years
1935
Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the Rural Electrification Administration to establish electric service to rural areas of the country.
1941
Central Electric Membership Corporation is chartered forever changing the landscape of rural Chatham, Harnett, Lee, and Moore counties. From the charter: “Members would be those individuals who received electric power from CEMC, each having one vote. All of the operations of the corporations shall be on a cooperative basis, not for pecuniary profit and for the use and benefit of its members.”
1945
Clayton Monroe Moretz hired as the first General Manager.
First REA loan of $150,000 to begin constructing the system.
1946
First edition of the Central Electric newsletter, News Central, is published. This newsletter is still published monthly.
Mr. and Mrs. June C. Cole light their home with electric lamps for the first time and become CEMC's first family to receive power.
1947
189 miles of line is constructed to serve 550 farms in Lee and Chatham counties.
1950
Central Electric begins building its first headquarters building on the corner of Cole Street and Steele Street in Sanford.
Capital Credits were first allocated to the members for fiscal year 1950.
1978
Substation construction begins.
1978
Siler City substation is completed serving Chatham County.
1979
Spout Springs substation is completed serving Harnett, Lee and Moore Counties.
1993
Johnsonville Substation is completed and shares part of Spout Springs load. It distributes electricity to members in northwest Harnett County, southern Lee County, and a portion of eastern Moore County.
1998
Center Church substation is completed serving Lee and Moore County and relieving load on Carthage, Johnsonville and Sanford.
2000
Reid Harris substation is completed serving eastern Chatham County.
2010
Doc’s Road substation in Western Harnett County is completed.
1983
The operation division of CEMC moves to its new warehouse/operations center on Wilson Road in Sanford.
1986
CEMC connects its largest load to date, Central Carolina Television, Inc. of Fayetteville. WKFT TV 40 had a demand of 600 kw and an annual use of 4.3 million kwh.
1994
CEMC constructs a new office facility adjacent to the operations center on Wilson Road. The office at 304 South Steele Street was officially closed October 21, 1994.
1995
Central EMC distributes nearly $3,500 in Bright Ideas Grants. The Bright Ideas Grant Program continues today with $15,000 awarded most recently in 2026.
1996
Hurricane Fran makes landfall near the mouth of the Cape Fear. On September 6, CEMC did not have a single meter turning on the entire system. It took 7 days of work to restore power.
1999
An automated outage reporting system is activated.
2011
A tornado wreaks havoc through Central’s service territory. Approximately 12,000 Central Electric members were without power, approximately 60 poles damaged or destroy, several circuit lines were down and damages to our power suppliers transmission line resulting in the loss of power to three substations.
2013
Operation Round Up® is introduced in order to collect funds to provide assistance for special needs in the communities Central EMC serves, particularly in situations where help is not available from other sources.
Central begins transitioning to an advanced metering system to transmit and receive data automatically and securely to our headquarters.
2014
Member Service Portal is created.
Central Electric sends its first delegate to the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington D.C.
2016
Community solar project completed.
2017
CEMC completes significant updgrade to 5 miles of transmission line in Harnett County.
Outage texting service is introduced.
2018
Central EMC Mobile App is introduced for members.
2019
Eddie Oldham named CEO and General Manager.
2020
Central brings EV charging station online.
2023
Central adds utility-scale battery storage at the Doc’s Road substation.
2024
Operation Round Up® celebrates a program milestone of $1 million in grants.
2025
CEMC introduces their podcast series, Behind The Lines.
