Many NWEC member-owners will see a lower electric bill around the holidays. This month, the cooperative is returning $590,800 in capital credits to current and former member-owners. Eligible member-owners will receive the refund as a credit on their electric bill or as a separate check in December. These capital credits represent the cooperative’s margins, or money left over after all bills have been paid.

As a not-for-profit community-focused organization, NWEC uses these margins for investments, such as building or replacing power lines, transformers, and other electric system upgrades to meet members’ evolving needs. This helps keep the co-op’s service reliable.

After being used as working capital, the money is returned to member-owners. It represents each co-op member’s ownership — or equity — in his or her cooperative. Capital credits are allocated to member-owners in proportion to the dollar amount of electricity used. Then, usually on bills due in December, some of those allocations are distributed back to the members in what NWEC calls a retirement.

This month’s payment goes to eligible member-owners who purchased electricity from NWEC in 2003 and 2022 (allocation notices were included on bills for March use). If you were a member during either or both of those years, you get a return on your ownership and will see a “capital credit retirement” line item on your bill due in December. If you are no longer a member now, NWEC will send a check to your last known address.

“Returning capital credits demonstrates that NWEC members are not just customers; they are members and part-owners of their electric cooperative, which belongs to the communities it serves,” said NWEC President/CEO Darin Thorp. “Members have equity ownership in NWEC’s physical assets — and receive a financial return on those assets, unlike customers of other utilities.”