Dakota Electric Association and its employees have raised $24,717 for charities through its employee led program called Dakota Cares. Each year Dakota Electric’s employees hold a variety of fundraising events and pledge drives to bring in donations for three charities: United Way, $8,539; Community Health Charities, $10,566; and the Fallen Lineman Organization, $5,612. “We could not [...]

Dakota Electric Association recently presented DataBank with a rebate check for $108,566 for installing high-efficiency air conditioning, a computer room cooling system, building automation and LED lighting in its new Eagan facility. One of the energy-efficient systems installed uses cool Minnesota air when it can to reduce temperatures in the room holding the computer servers. “This [...]

Dakota Electric Association, along with CoBank, one of its lenders, recently donated $10,000 to 360 Communities. Dakota Electric’s $5,000 donation was matched by CoBank through the company’s “Sharing Success” grant program. Dakota Electric’s Board of Directors and CoBank’s Cliff Bolstad, and Rachel Hanson, presented the check to Sal Mondelli, president and CEO of 360 Communities, and [...]

Dakota Electric Association recently awarded $10,000 from unclaimed capital credits to go toward specific needs within four different school districts. Superintendents and representatives from Cannon Falls, Northfield, Randolph and Red Wing attended a recent Dakota Electric board meeting to receive the donations. Cannon Falls will use the money to purchase equipment to enhance its STEAM program [...]

Dakota Electric Association recently awarded Jamie Elvestad, Farmington, the Township Leader of the Year award. Each year, Dakota Electric seeks to recognize outstanding leadership with the award, and Dakota Electric Director Jerry Pittman attended a recent Dakota County Township Officers Association meeting to present the award to Elvestad. Elvestad has been an Empire Township Supervisor since [...]

Dakota Electric Association was recently nominated for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) Cooperative Purpose Award. The award, new in 2015, recognizes cooperatives for their efforts at improving the quality of life for their members and communities.  “The award will go to a co-op for working with its membership to make outstanding contributions that result [...]

Dakota Electric Association had a total of 7,081 people attend the company’s 18th annual Member Appreciation Event at the Minnesota Zoo on July 30. During the event, zoo admission was free to all Dakota Electric members and their families.    As part of the event, Dakota Electric, a member-owned cooperative, asked attendees to bring food donations [...]

UDPATE: Call in if still out of power FARMINGTON, Minn. (7 p.m., July 18, 2015) — Dakota Electric Association crews continue to work on the remaining outages after last night’s storm. Less than 30 are still out of power and everyone should be on tonight.  Member who are currently still out of power are urged to [...]

Five area high school students, sponsored by Dakota Electric Association, recently returned from a Washington D.C. trip-of-a-lifetime. Dakota Electric’s students joined more than 1,600 students from across the nation (41 from Minnesota) for the 51st annual National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Rural Electric Youth Tour held June 13-18. Dakota Electric Association awarded the students the [...]

Dakota Electric Association donated more than 5,100 tree seedlings this spring, as it wraps up a full schedule of assisting with community plantings and environmental events throughout its service territory. Each year, Dakota Electric participates in a variety of Arbor Day and environmental events by donating seedlings and providing educational information and assistance. This year, Dakota [...]