SMECO history

1938 SMECO’s generating plant at Popes Creek, Maryland, was energized, initially serving 400 families.

Electrification did not come to the county until 1939, when Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative began service in the area.

In 1942, Solomons became the training site for Navy and Marine detachments, with the establishment of an Amphibious Training Base at Dowell.

1945 In April, Co-op power was extended into Calvert County with the purchase of the electric lines owned by the Eastern Shore Public Service Company.

1946 District offices opened in Calvert and St Mary’s counties.

A toll bridge was built across the Patuxent River at Hallowing Point in 1951, connecting Calvert and Charles Counties.

1953 The generating plant at Popes Creek closed and all power was bought from Pepco.

As recently as 1972, children in Solomons commuted to school in St Mary's County by boat.

1979 New St Mary’s Office opened in Leonardtown.

1981 New Headquarters Office opened in Hughesville.

1982 SMECO introduced the Load Management program, which initially involved about 200 homes.

Also, you can read The First Fifty Years (1987).

1989 Walter Smith retired; Wayne Swann was appointed Executive Vice President and General Manager.

1995 A centralized call center was established, along with a Key Accounts program for commercial customers.

1997 SMECO celebrated its 60th anniversary with over 112,000 services in place.

1998 SMECO participated in Maryland Public Service Commission roundtable discussions on customer choice issues.

1999 SMECO helped to pass the Electric Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1999.

2000 The Cooperative completed discussions to form the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Services (MACS) with Choptank Electric Cooperative of Denton, Maryland, and Adams Electric Cooperative of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

2001 SMECO offered Customer Choice to its largest commercial customers on January 1st; all remaining customers became eligible for Choice on November 1st.

2003 Wayne Swann retired; Joe Slater was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.

2006 A simulated emergency evaluated SMECO’s readiness for dealing with events that pose risks to utilities.

2008 SMECO launched the Southern Maryland Reliability Project to upgrade its transmission capacity and improve the system’s reliability.

2009 SMECO and the United States Navy signed an agreement to privatize three facilities in Southern Maryland.

2010 Construction began on a new energy-efficient building at the Hughesville headquarters.

2011 More than 108,800 of SMECO’s customer-members lose power when Hurricane Irene strikes Southern Maryland.

Celebrate 75 years of bringing power to Southern Maryland with a commemorative book or print published in 2012.

2013 SMECO finished construction of the new Engineering and Operations Center in Hughesville.

2015 The 230-kV loop was tested and performed as designed when a major Pepco equipment failure disrupted power from Southern Maryland to the White House.

2016 SMECO members voted to convert the annual meeting to a business meeting with all voting being managed through the mail.

2018 SMECO’s online Account Manager was upgraded to display energy use data obtained from smart meters.

2020 SMECO adapted quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic, transitioning 241 on-site employees to teleworkers and revising work processes to ensure social distancing.