Press release
ATTICA – About 12,400 former and current members of North Central Electric Cooperative will receive patronage capital credit refunds in early December.
At its November meeting, the North Central Board of Trustees approved a patronage capital credit refund of $891,446, marking the 37th consecutive year the cooperative has retired capital credits to current and former members. Since 1980, the cooperative has refunded more than $19.1 million in capital credits.
The majority of refunds are issued as credits on members’ bills rather than issued as checks. Bills will be mailed or e-mailed to members Dec. 1.
For former members and cooperative members whose refund total is $100 or more, a check will be mailed Dec. 1.
“We are pleased, once again, to be able to issue patronage capital credit refunds to our member owners,” said President Duane Frankart. “This is what makes the cooperative business model unique. We are one of 24 not-for-profit electric cooperatives in Ohio. Together, we own our own power supply and our rates are competitive. We have a strong system maintenance program and our outage statistics are historically low. Factor all that in, and the refunding of patronage capital credits is a testament to our cooperative’s financial strength and stability.”
Frankart explained members provide the necessary capital for the cooperative to operate, maintain and expand its system. The cooperative retains allocated capital credits as working capital for new construction, equipment and system improvements throughout its service area. Otherwise, rates would have to be raised significantly to pay for infrastructure improvements. If financial conditions permit, the North Central Board of Trustees decides each year whether to retire a set amount of capital credits.
North Central serves approximately 9,650 consumers-owners and maintains 1,786 miles of line in Seneca, Crawford and Wyandot counties, plus portions of Huron, Richland, Sandusky, Hancock and Wood counties.
Capital Credit Refunds
Pre-2009…$13,365,448
2009…….$761,810
2010…….$746,423
2011…….$707,530
2012…….$578,667
2013…….$725,119
2014…….$689,373
2015…….$693,150
2016…….$891,446
Total……..$19,158,966