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Capital Credits

  By: Chris Reese, President & CEO

  Email: contacttheceo@sussexrec.com

Earlier in this issue I addressed rates and stated that we try to collect enough to run the utility effectively and efficiently. As SREC closes its books at the end of each year, after all the bills have been paid, all the costs of running the utility are accounted for, and all expenses have been taken into consideration, if there is any leftover money it goes back to you, the member. In a cooperative business we call this a margin, whereas an investor-owned utility would call it profit. The amount allocated back to each member is based on how much electricity they used in that year and is paid back to the member later in the form of a capital credit retirement.

You may ask, “how can Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative raise its System Connection Fee and still be able to retire capital credits? Why not just keep the money and offset the increase?” Understand, this is a margin from previous years – 2005 and 2022 to be specific – and those capital credits are already allocated to the members that were living on our lines in these years. Know that if there are any monies left at the end of the next calendar year, you will receive your share back in the form of capital credits.

Capital credit checks from 2023’s retirement will arrive in your mailbox in December. We’ll be retiring a total of $800,000 this year, with $400,000 going to members on our lines in 2005 and $400,000 to our members on our lines in 2022. We hope that this check will bring some peace and joy to you and yours this holiday season!

For more information on capital credits, visit our Capital Credits page.