FreeState Electric Cooperative Announces Strategic Partnership with Western United Electric Supply
Partnership will improve local material availability for the co-op, strengthen supply-chain resilience and support future growth
FreeState Electric Cooperative (FEC) has developed a strategic partnership with Western United Electric Supply (WUES) aimed at strengthening the cooperative’s operational supply chain, improving access to critical materials when member-owners need them most.
The partnership goes beyond changing where FreeState purchases poles, transformers, wire and other electric utility materials. It creates a new approach to managing inventory that will bring materials closer to FreeState’s system while building a long-term relationship with a cooperative-owned distributor.
“We aren’t just changing suppliers,” said Ryan Coates, Vice President of Asset Management & Supply Chain at FEC. “We’re rethinking how FreeState manages materials from the ground up.”
A major component of the partnership is a new warehouse facility planned just north of FreeState’s current headquarters in Topeka. FreeState will own the facility, creating a long-term cooperative asset, while Western United will establish a local presence through a commercial-lease arrangement.
Work on the project has started, with an anticipated completion date of June 2027.
The new commercial warehouse space will support not only FreeState, but other cooperatives and municipalities here in Kansas. The partnership is unique because WUES, headquartered in Brighton, Colorado, is a distributor utilizing the cooperative business model. The first of this type in the Sunflower state.
Having a local inventory strategy can provide quicker access to needed materials during storms and major outages, as well as during construction projects and periods of system growth. It can also help FreeState’s operations and engineering teams plan projects and respond to changing system needs.
“We see this as a win for both FreeState and Western United,” said Coates. “We are able to take advantage of our location here on the west side of Topeka and provide a place where Kansas Electric Cooperatives and municipalities will have access to a co-op owned supplier much closer to home.”
Coates added, “This partnership is about putting FreeState in greater control of our supply chain, because it is critical to reliability.”
For FreeState, this is part of a broader effort to modernize cooperative operations, improve efficiency and ensure the organization is positioned to meet the needs of member-owners well into the future.
