01 Mar
This month IREA will refund to customers capital credits totaling $9 million.
As a customer of IREA, you are a member/owner. A benefit of cooperative membership is that our margins are allocated to member capital accounts as capital credits. Capital credit allocations are based on each customer’s purchased energy during the year. A portion of each allocation is retained by the association to invest in infrastructure and is booked as member equity. Equity is refunded to members on a regular basis in the form of capital credit retirements.
Each year IREA’s Board of Directors considers the association’s financial position and determines whether we can retire capital credits and, if so, how much to retire. The Board retires as much as it can consistent with equity and cash flow requirements.
Capital credits have been retired nearly every year since 1965, and in the last 10 years have totaled nearly $120 million. This year’s refund is lower than in recent years because of significantly higher power costs in 2020. More information on this topic is available here.
Most customers will see their capital credit refund as a credit on their March bill. A capital credit refund check is mailed if the customer has opted out of the bill credit, is on Budget Billing, maintains multiple active accounts or no longer has an active account.
For more information about capital credits, visit www.IREA.coop/capital-credits.