What
is an Electric Cooperative?
How
does an electric co-op compare to other utilities
What if the power
goes out?
What about power
outages and life-support systems?
How will we know about
scheduled outages?
What is capital
patronage?
When will I receive my
capital credits?
If I die, what happens to my capital credits?
What
is an Electric Cooperative?
In 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signed the
Rural Electrification Act that made it possible for many rural people to
organize electric cooperatives. The REA, as it was called, gave
electric co-ops access to low interest loans for the purpose of
constructing transmission and distribution systems in order to provide
central station power to rural America. Many of the country's
People's Utility Districts [PUD] also had access to REA funds.
At the time the REA Act was signed there were very few rural people fortunate enough to enjoy the luxury of electricity that their city cousins had. Even if you happened to live next to the road right of way where an Investor Owned Utility [IOU] had a power line, the costs to connect in most cases was prohibitive, and you certainly could not afford to have the line built over a great distance. Evidence of this is still apparent today as you drive down Highway 97 in Sherman County.
Today, electric co-ops nationwide serve 10.8 percent of the population and account for 7.4 percent of the energy sold. Although they own and maintain nearly half of the distributions lines in the U.S., spanning three quarters of the land mass, they average only 5.8 consumers per mile and collect revenues of approximately $7,000 per mile. IOU's average 35 customers per mile and collect $59,000 per mile of line; and public utilities, or municipals, average 48 consumers and collect $72,000 per mile of line. As a comparison, Wasco Electric Co-op has a density of 2.4 consumers per mile and collects revenue of approximately $2,600 per mile.
How
does an electric co-op compare to other utilities? Any revenue collected and not used to pay operating expenses [profit] is returned to the members of Wasco Electric Cooperative in the form of capital credits. Profits earned by IOUs are repaid to stockholders, not customers. Profits earned by PUDs and Municipals are retained by them.
Wasco Electric Cooperative is locally owned and controlled by the members. Directors, who must be members, are elected each year at the annual meeting by the members. The board functions as a body planning, setting policy and approving budgets. Their common goal is providing the best possible services at the lowest possible cost.
IOU boards generally consist of stockholders interested in a rate of return on their investment.
What
if the power goes out?
Any equipment beyond the members meter is
the responsibility of the members. Therefore, if your power goes
out, first check your fuses or breakers. If you find a problem with
the fuses or breakers, you will need to contact a local electrician for
repairs. If our crews are requested to respond to such an outage and
the problem is on the member's side of the meter, the member may be billed
the actual cost of labor and overhead.
If you determine that your fuses and breakers are O.K., check with your neighbors to see if their power is off also. When you call the office to report an outage, please provide your name, address, phone number and any information you might have on what may have caused the outage. In most cases we will attempt to call back to confirm that your power has been restored.
Report
outages 24 hours a day!
541-296-2740 or
800-341-8580
What about power outages and life-support
systems?If you or someone in the home is dependent on life-support equipment, don't wait for an outage to notify us.
Please call us now and your name will be added to our Life
Support listing. We will give these residences priority in the event
of an outage and make every effort possible to notify you of all scheduled
outages. However, it is important that those members that are
dependent on life-support equipment take the necessary steps needed to be
prepared for a power outage and not rely on Wasco Electric to be able to
restore service immediately.
How
will we know about schedule outages?
The cooperative will need to occasionally schedule a planned outage in
order to do maintenance or repair work on our lines. In the event of
a planned outage, we will make every effort to notify you by phone or
through the local media.
What is capital
patronage?
Capital patronage is the assignment, to Wasco Electric Cooperative
members, of each account's portion of the margins [profit] for a
year. Since Wasco Electric Cooperative is a non-profit organization,
all profit or margins are assigned to you, the member-owners.
An example of this is as follows:
Revenue
$1,000,000
Expenses 900,000
Profit/Margins 100,000
For the sake
of keeping it simple, imagine that you paid $100,000 for energy that year
or 10% of the total revenue came from you. At the end of the year
10% of the margins [$1,000] would be assigned to you.
This assignment comes to you in a letter each year. Many people
confuse it with a power bill or credit. It cannot be used as a
credit on your next bill.
When
will I receive my capital credits?After the patronage capital is assigned to you, the cooperative uses your money to cover the operating costs and capital investments. This in turn helps keep your rates down by allowing us to not borrow money to operate on and make capital investments.
The capital credits are refunded only upon authorization by the member-elected Board of Directors. According to the bylaws, the board cannot authorize refunding capital credits if it will financially impair the operation of the cooperative. If the cooperative has an equity level of less than 40% RUS approval is required prior to a refund.
If I die, what happens to my capital
credits?
Currently estates are paid upon request at 100% In other words,
if a member dies and his or her spouse did not have a joint membership
they are eligible to receive all of the assigned capital credits in order
to settle the estate.
This applies only to living persons and not to businesses or corporations
that cease to exist.
© Copyright 2001, Wasco Electric Cooperative, All Rights Reserved