Empire Electric returns $1.68 million in capital credits

Empire Electric Association (EEA) will return $1,684,038.87 in capital credits to eligible members.
These funds will be distributed as bill credits or mailed as checks in April.
Any revenue remaining after all expenses have been paid in a fiscal year are termed margins.
Margins are allocated to members who took service from the cooperative during that fiscal year and are placed into a patronage capital account in each member’s name. This capital, along with borrowed funds, is invested back into EEA system infrastructure.
“The capital provided by members through this process allows EEA to maintain and upgrade our distribution system without borrowing more money” says Ginny Johnson, Finance Manager.
“It helps build member’s equity and is fundamental to the cooperative business model. The margins allocated as capital credits allow EEA to maintain the highest level of system reliability while keeping rates as low as possible.
“The completion of the backup interconnection to Rocky Mountain Power’s Pinto substation to secure an emergency power supply for members on EEA’s west side is a good example of how member capital improves reliability while keeping costs down.” _
Allocated margins are eventually returned to members as capital credits. Each year, the EEA Board of Directors reviews the financial health of the cooperative and determines if capital credits will be returned. We retire capital credits and pay them back to the members we serve as soon as it is financially prudent to do so. Returning capital credits to our members is one of the many things that sets cooperatives apart from for-profit utilities. At the February 2024 board meeting, the board approved returning the remaining EEA Margins from 2003 and a portion from 2004. Since incorporation in 1939, EEA has paid members approximately $39.3 million in retired capital credits.
Please be sure to keep your contact information up to date, even if you discontinue service with EEA, so that you can be contacted about future capital credit retirements. A list of former members with unclaimed capital credits is posted each year on EEA’s website at eea.coop. If you have any questions about capital credits or any other cooperative business, please call EEA’s office at (970) 565-4444.