Coastal Electric Cooperative board approves almost $1.4 million in capital credits retirement to members

If you were a Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­ber in 2010, the coop­er­a­tive wants to give you mon­ey back.

This month, in fact, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive will retire $1,395,245.24 in cap­i­tal cred­its to mem­bers who received ser­vice in 2010.

As a not-for-prof­it coop­er­a­tive, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive oper­ates dif­fer­ent­ly from oth­er busi­ness­es. One unique prac­tice of the co-op busi­ness mod­el is retir­ing cap­i­tal cred­its. When mem­ber rev­enues exceed costs, those mar­gins become the member’s equi­ty in the coop­er­a­tive. When the finan­cial strength of the coop­er­a­tive allows, the board of direc­tors can order the return of a por­tion of that equi­ty.

Those who pay bills to Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive are more than customers—they are mem­bers. Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive has no need to gen­er­ate prof­its, so mem­bers’ elec­tric bills col­lec­tive­ly cov­er what is need­ed to sup­ply pow­er to their homes and busi­ness­es, from gen­er­at­ing the pow­er at plants and buy­ing lines and poles that deliv­er elec­tric­i­ty to main­tain­ing equip­ment to keep ser­vice reli­able and com­pen­sat­ing employ­ees who make it all hap­pen.

When the co-op’s elect­ed board of direc­tors deter­mines it is finan­cial­ly fea­si­ble, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive retires excess mar­gins back to mem­bers who have paid their elec­tric bills.

Checks will be mailed in Decem­ber to every­one receiv­ing a refund of more than $25. Amounts less than $25 will be deliv­ered in the form of bill cred­its.

To date, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive has retired more than $22 mil­lion in cap­i­tal cred­its to mem­bers.

Inac­tive or for­mer mem­bers who no longer pur­chase elec­tric­i­ty from Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive (but who pur­chased elec­tric­i­ty dur­ing the years being retired) receive cap­i­tal cred­its checks, too. So, if you ever move off the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive sys­tem, be sure to keep your address up to date in the co-op’s records so you can receive cap­i­tal cred­its when the time comes.

Get more infor­ma­tion on our Cap­i­tal Cred­its page.