BUSINESS MEMO: AECI ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. will holds its annual meeting Tuesday and Wednesday as the Marriott Pavilion Hotel in downtown St. Louis.

Nearly 600 representatives of AECI's system from six regional generation and transmission cooperatives, including a cooperative at New Madrid, will attend the two-session.

Topics will include utility deregulation, environmental challenges to the utility industry, and the operations of AECI, which provides power to six regional and 42 local electric cooperative systems in Missouri and southeast Iowa, serving more than 550,000 homes and businesses.

Effective July 1, the company will serve nine additional cooperatives in Oklahoma.