NRECA International has been involved in the design, development, and operation of more than 200 rural electric utilities over its four decades of experience in developing countries. Assisting a newly established institution to reach financial sustainability over a relatively short period of time is a significant challenge. Beyond hiring and training staff, the new entity has to be incorporated as a particular kind of business institution that will serve the specific needs and purposes for which it has been established. In consultation with stakeholders and communities, NRECA International often assists in the development of institutions with program activities such as cooperative formation, legal registration, development of by laws, policies and procedures, board elections, and training of personnel and directors for utility operation and management.

In the Dominican Republic, NRECA International has played a pivotal role in the development of the country’s first electricity cooperative, which covers 17,000 consumers in eight municipalities in the rural southwestern part of the country. By 2005, the Fronteriza electric cooperative had nearly 900 members, and $7 million in funding had been secured from USAID, USDA, the Dominican government and the cooperative members themselves to finance distribution system rehabilitation, expansion and household connections. NRECA International is overseeing rehabilitation of the distribution system, providing training to utility staff, and will manage the cooperative for the first five years before transferring management to the cooperative. NRECA International is also supervising the establishment of second cooperative in an urban neighborhood of Santo Domingo.