OPALCO News

The Co-op Dif­fer­ence: Cap­i­tal Cred­it Checks are in the Mail! 

More than $1M in cap­i­tal cred­it checks are going out to OPALCO mem­bers this month, as they do each year. As an elec­tric coop­er­a­tive, the mar­gin at the end of any giv­en year goes back into the hands of mem­bers. Each year the co-op tracks how much you pay for pow­er and deter­mines how much of the mar­gin you will receive. 

Cap­i­tal cred­it div­i­dends are paid to mem­bers after 25 years. The checks being sent out this year are for mem­bers active in 1996 and 1997 and will be in the mail on Decem­ber 21st. The check amounts range from $5 to thou­sands (for big ener­gy users like gro­cery stores); most checks are for between $50 – 250. 

Last year more than $24,000 was donat­ed from cap­i­tal cred­it checks to Project Pal and helped neigh­bors in our com­mu­ni­ty. Project Pal offers a one-time grant (per year) to low-income mem­bers dur­ing the heat­ing season. 

This year, more than 5,000 mem­bers will get checks total­ing over $1M.  In 2018, OPALCO start­ed uti­liz­ing a smooth­ing method­ol­o­gy to ensure gen­er­al retire­ments are as even as pos­si­ble from year to year and to plan for big­ger mar­gins that occurred in the past twen­ty years. So, all of 1996 was dis­trib­uted, plus about 66% of 1997. This helps OPALCO to bud­get for the cash required to pay cap­i­tal cred­its and keeps co-op mar­gins in the mem­bers’ hands. Mem­bers will con­tin­ue to get their cap­i­tal cred­its at 25 years, but dis­tri­b­u­tion will be cal­cu­lat­ed based on a gen­er­al rolling average. 

Please remem­ber to keep OPALCO updat­ed when your address changes so your cap­i­tal cred­it dis­tri­b­u­tions can find you! Learn more about cap­i­tal cred­its www.opalco.com/join-opalco/capital-credits/. 

Orcas Pow­er & Light Coop­er­a­tive (OPALCO) is our mem­ber-owned coop­er­a­tive elec­tric util­i­ty, serv­ing more than 11,400 mem­bers on 20 islands in San Juan Coun­ty.  OPALCO pro­vides elec­tric­i­ty that is 97% green­house-gas free and is gen­er­at­ed pre­dom­i­nant­ly by hydro­elec­tric plants. OPALCO was found­ed in 1937. Fol­low OPALCO @OrcasPower on Face­book and Twitter.

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