Poudre Valley REA paying consumers $6 million
FORT COLLINS — Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association, a not-for-profit electric-distribution cooperative that serves more than 38,000 homes and businesses in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, announced this week that it is paying out a total of $6 million to its members this week — its largest-ever annual retirement of capital credits and double last year’s payment.
As a cooperative utility, PVREA operates as a consumer-owned organization, and any margins are credited to cooperative members each year based on how much electricity they purchased. These funds, called capital credits, are used to help meet the expenses of the co-op, such as paying for new equipment to serve members and repaying debt. Capital credits help keep rates at an affordable level by reducing the amount of funds that must be borrowed to grow and maintain the electric system.
Every year, the PVREA board of directors determines whether financial conditions allow for the retirement of capital credits. This year, the board approved the retirement of capital credits for patronage capital allocated in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2014. Members who received service from Poudre Valley REA in those years and have accumulated retired credits of $10 or more are receiving a check in the mail this week, PVREA said.
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“Paying capital credits to our members is one of the many factors that make electric cooperatives unique and differentiate us from investor-owned and municipal utilities,” said Jeff Wadsworth, PVREA chief executive, in a prepared statement. “Since we are a not-for-profit organization with a 501 (c)(12) tax designation, we return capital credits as a tangible representation of our members’ investment in PVREA.”
More than 49,000 consumers were to receive a capital-credit retirement this week from the cooperative. Poudre Valley REA has paid out more than $48.5 million of capital credits since its founding in 1939 and $18 million of capital credits annually in the past five years alone — including $3 million in 2014.
More information on capital credits is available at www.pvrea.com/capital-credits or by calling 800-432-1012.
FORT COLLINS — Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association, a not-for-profit electric-distribution cooperative that serves more than 38,000 homes and businesses in Boulder, Larimer and Weld counties, announced this week that it is paying out a total of $6 million to its members this week — its largest-ever annual retirement of capital credits and double last year’s payment.
As a cooperative utility, PVREA operates as a consumer-owned organization, and any margins are credited to cooperative members each year based on how much electricity they purchased. These funds, called capital credits, are used to help meet the expenses of the co-op, such as…
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