A joint effort between Pennyrile Electric and Hopkinsville Electric System to bring high-speed fiber internet to consumer-members is underway.

In a new video posted this morning by Kentucky Electric Cooperatives, Pennyrile Electric CEO Alan Gates says the first phase of the “energynet” buildout now underway is expected to be complete within two years. 

“And beyond that, I mean our ultimate goal is to reach every end member of Pennyrile Electric within five years,” Gates says, explaining that large communication providers declined to serve rural areas where co-ops serve only two or three customers per mile of line.

Click here to watch the video which includes comments from Pennyrile Electric members excited about the broadband service to help with education, farming, health care and quality of life.

“We want great member satisfaction. We feel that this is a way to connect to our members, providing a service that no one else was willing to bring them, much like we did with electricity in 1936 and 1937,” Gates says.  We’re a service company, so we want to do everything that we can to serve our membership, and just try to be able to do that without affecting the electric rate, from that, we will provide connectivity to our entire membership.”

Funds allocated through Christian, Trigg, and Todd County Fiscal Courts will allow Pennyrile Electric to move forward with the project, while preserving a business model that protects the integrity of the electric side of the business.

“What’s so good about what we’re doing is it’s going to be out in the rural areas,” says Clayton Miller, lead fiber technician with Pennyrile Electric. “The rural areas, they don’t have access to this. So, this is really going to be a big jump for them compared to people who live in the city. So you can have the big city feel and the technology side but still live out in the country.”

Three packages are offered for the energynet service:

• 200 mbps home package is offered at $59.95/month.
• 500 mbps gamer edition package is offered at $79.95/month.
• Full speed service with speeds up to 1 gigabit is offered at $99.95/month.  

Each energynet package includes whole-home wifi and 24/7 local support with unlimited data usage and no contracts.