It’s important to give credit where credit is due. Whether someone has volunteered their time or talent, pitched in to organize a large event or contributed to an overall team effort, recognition matters. As a member-owner of Lake Country Power, you play an important role in the cooperative’s success, and capital credits are one way the co-op recognizes — and credits — your contribution.
Lake Country Power doesn’t operate to generate profits for outside shareholders. Instead, we operate on an at-cost basis. This means the revenue collected from you, our members, is used to help provide reliable electric service, maintain infrastructure and support daily operations.
At the end of each year, if our operating revenue exceeds those expenses, the remaining amount is proportionally allocated to members as capital credits based on how much electricity they purchased during that year.
Rather than being paid out immediately, the funds are invested in the cooperative as a source of financing for major investments, such as power lines, transformers, trucks, equipment, inventory and system improvements. This process reduces the need for additional borrowing and supports the co-op’s mission to provide reliable, affordable service.
When financial conditions allow, the co-op’s board of directors then determines how much of those previously allocated capital credits can be retired (or returned) to members. Current members typically receive this as a bill credit, while former members receive a check by mail.
Capital credits are one of the unique benefits of cooperative membership and serve as a key difference between our business model and others. We return excess margins to the people who support us and helped create them: you, the members.