SMECO
UtilitiesMaryland, United States201-500 Employees
SMECO, the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, is a member-owned electric utility based in Hughesville, Maryland. Founded in 1937 with a Rural Electrification Administration loan, the cooperative built 175 miles of distribution lines to serve about 600 customer-members and operated a generating plant at Popes Creek from 1938 to 1953. Its service area now spans all of Charles and St. Mary’s counties, the southern portion of Prince George’s County, and most of Calvert County, reflecting a large regional footprint. As of January 2026, SMECO serves around 181,000 customers, ranking among the larger electric cooperatives in the United States. In 2025 it joined with technology partners to launch the FlexHome Pilot program, a collaboration aimed at advancing innovative grid and load-management initiatives in its service area.