Santee Electric Cooperative, Inc. (“SEC”) is a member-owned electric utility that provides annual patronage capital refunds to its members. These refunds are based on energy purchased by the individual member in previous years.
As a business, SEC must maintain a margin between what it costs to operate and what it receives as income. The accumulation of margins builds equity which is leveraged to finance infrastructure improvements such as substations, transformers, and other shared system assets that help sustain and improve the service that is provided. The payment of capital credits is determined annually by the SEC Board of Trustees and is based on the level of equity needed for SEC to remain financially sound.
Capital credit refund amounts vary from a few dollars to thousands of dollars for large commercial and industrial facilities. Checks were mailed on May 1 and should arrive in members’ mailboxes soon. Members have 60 days to cash the checks. Any refund amounts less than $10 will be provided as a bill credit. This $1.8 million distribution retires the remainder of the allocation for 1995, a portion of 1996, and a portion of 2019. Given the long period of time involved in the accumulation of capital credits, it is important that members maintain accurate contact information with SEC so that they can receive future checks and other correspondence regarding the credits.
“Being able to issue $1.8 million in capital credits, 50% more than last year, to our members during these difficult times is something that we are proud to have accomplished. I would like to thank our Board of Trustees for making this possible. We hope that our members will make good use of these funds,” said Rob Ardis, SEC President and CEO.
Photo caption – Santee Electric Cooperative member, Beth McGee, shows off her 2020 capital credit check from the co-op.
