CHEC is a cooperative and operates as a not-for-profit organization, returning the profits or margins to you, our members. After closing the record books each year, these margins are allocated to the members based on the dollar amount of electricity purchased during the year.
After this allocation, these margins are referred to as “capital credits.” A portion of these capital credits is refunded to the members around December of each year. These refunds are in the form of checks or are returned to members as credits on their bill.
The remaining capital credits not refunded to members in a calendar year are invested in the facilities of the cooperative and also are retained as operating funds. These funds will also be refunded to the members in future capital credit retirements, as approved by the CHEC board of directors. This allows the cooperative to reduce costs by reducing the amount of money the cooperative has to borrow, repay and pay interest on.
The patronage capital allocation factor per $100 of electricity usage for 2021 is $18.78.