Peace River Electric Cooperative

Overview

Built to Serve a Growing Cooperative

Peace River Electric Cooperative (PRECO) is a member-owned electric cooperative serving communities across Central Florida, guided by a mission to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electric service while enriching the communities it serves. Grounded in the cooperative principles, PRECO prioritizes transparency, accessibility, and meaningful engagement with its members. As PRECO continues to grow and expand its services, its website plays an important role in how members connect with information, tools, and the cooperative itself.

PRECO partnered once again with Powerful to redesign its website as a natural next step in an ongoing relationship. As PRECO’s services, tools, and community initiatives continue to evolve, the website refresh provided an opportunity to better reflect who the cooperative is today while improving how members interact with it online. The redesign focused on increasing the use of online tools, highlighting PRECO’s role in the community, and creating an experience that feels intuitive and easy to navigate.

Turning Cooperative Benefits Into Interactive Experiences

Capital Credits Lookup Tool

One of PRECO’s primary goals was to increase engagement with online tools, particularly those tied directly to cooperative benefits. Capital credits represent members’ economic participation in the cooperative, a foundational Cooperative Principle. To make this benefit more accessible, Powerful implemented the Capital Credits Lookup Tool directly on PRECO’s website.

On the Capital Credits page, visitors are met with a prominent search bar placed front and center. Members can type their name into the search field, and if they have unclaimed capital credits, their information appears instantly. This replaces the more tedious process of downloading and manually searching through spreadsheet files, which often creates friction and discourages follow-through.

By transforming capital credits into an interactive, self-service experience, the tool helps PRECO bring an important cooperative benefit into the spotlight. Members are more likely to engage when the process is straightforward and intuitive, supporting PRECO’s goal of increasing online tool usage while reinforcing transparency and member participation.

KML Map Integration

The KML map integration further supports PRECO’s focus on online engagement while uplifting the Cooperative Principle of democratic member control. PRECO’s service area spans nine geographic districts, each represented by a board member. The redesigned website makes it easy for members to identify their district and connect with their representative.

Visitors can enter their address into the interactive map to see exactly which district they belong to. Each district is clearly color-coded, allowing for quick visual recognition. Once a district is selected, the board director representing that area appears, helping members understand who speaks on their behalf. The map transforms what could be static information into an interactive experience, encouraging exploration and engagement.

Fast Access to Essential Services

PRECO’s website visitors often arrive with a clear goal in mind. Common tasks like paying a bill, starting or stopping service, or checking outage statuses drive much of the site traffic. With that understanding, the redesign focused on intuitive design and navigation that supports these high-priority actions. Utilizing Powerful’s Ashland blueprint, the homepage was structured to be task-oriented, placing large call-to-action buttons prominently at the top of the page. As soon as visitors land on the site, these actions are clearly visible, allowing them to complete essential tasks without scrolling or searching.

To further streamline the experience, SmartHub access was integrated directly into the global navigation. A bold yellow button sits prominently in the navigation bar, making account access easy to spot from anywhere on the site. When a visitor hovers over the button, a login box appears instantly, allowing them to sign in. By reducing clicks and placing this top task where visitors expect it, the integration strengthens intuitive navigation and encourages ongoing use of online tools. Together, the Ashland blueprint and SmartHub integration create a cohesive experience that helps members move quickly, confidently, and comfortably through the website.