OPALCO mails capital credit checks to long-time members

OPALCO shares an update about about their cap­i­tal cred­it div­i­dend program.

More than $1.1 mil­lion in cap­i­tal cred­it checks are going out to long-time 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 as a cap­i­tal cred­it allo­ca­tion to your membership.

Cap­i­tal cred­it div­i­dends are paid to mem­bers after 25 years. The checks being sent out this year are for mem­bers active in 1997 and 1998 and will be in the mail today, Dec. 19. The check amounts range from five dol­lars to thou­sands, for big ener­gy users like gro­cery stores. Most checks are between $50 and $250.

Last year more than $18,000 was donat­ed back from cap­i­tal cred­it checks to sup­port Project Pal, help­ing neigh­bors in our com­mu­ni­ty. Project Pal offers a one-time-per-year grant to low-income mem­bers dur­ing the heat­ing season.

More than 6,000 mem­bers will get checks in 2022.

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. This year, all of the 1997 mar­gin was dis­trib­uted, plus about 60 per­cent of 1998’s. 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.

Remem­ber to keep OPALCO updat­ed when your address changes so that your cap­i­tal cred­it dis­tri­b­u­tions can find you. Learn more about cap­i­tal cred­its on the OPALCO web­site.

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