CSA History

In the mid-1930’s, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was just beginning to generate electricity and make it available to citizens of the Tennessee Valley area. North Mississippi was one of the first areas in the country where this relatively new and scarce form of energy was made available to individual consumers. In January, 1934, the Tennessee Valley Authority began making substantial efforts toward the goal of electrification in rural areas, and Pontotoc County, Mississippi was chosen as the starting point. Other areas soon followed, and distribution of electricity was now being performed by newly formed local “distributorships,” which were “publicly” owned by local government entities, or cooperatives owned by the individual consumers.

In 1937, Central Service Association was born of a cooperative effort by these new utility distributors to create a method of using centralized expertise to perform utility customer billing and other joint services that were determined as useful to the efficient operation of these new utilities. On January 3, 1938, CSA was incorporated under the laws of the State of Mississippi and is owned and controlled by the utilities that use the services of the Association. The fifteen-member Board of Directors is elected from, and by, the utility managers of the various geographic districts that comprise the service area. We have a very strong heritage that is rooted in a reputation for dedicated efforts to provide accurate and reliable services. The Association is operated without profit and solely for the benefit of its member/owners.