Community Electric Cooperative is going strong – with solid safety and financial performance for its member-owners – despite the turbulent times that much of the U.S. electric sector is facing. That was one of the key messages shared with attendees – in person and virtually – at CEC’s annual business meeting on August 13th.
Infrastructure improvements highlighted by last year’s commissioning of the Copeland Substation and the continued growth of CEC’s RECORE energy solutions subsidiary are enhancing the resilience of the Cooperative’s distribution system and providing solid financial footing to invest in equipment and programs that will allow CEC to better serve its members.
“We continue to prioritize the needs and satisfaction of our member-owners,” CEC President and CEO Steven Harmon said. “Fortunately, we benefit from a highly dedicated workforce who commit themselves to the job at hand and, perhaps most impressively, regularly devote time after work hours to professional development pursuits that will further enhance their skills and performance.”
The financial picture is sufficiently sound that CEC anticipates again returning money to member-owners at year’s end in the form of capital credits. Capital credits are a unique feature of the rural electric cooperative structure. Cooperatives function with a federal tax-exempt designation and, to help retain that status, operate on an at-cost basis that includes returning “excess” revenue to its member-owners in the form of money or a credit on their electric bill.
A year ago, Community Electric “retired” capital credits totaling nearly $284,000 in payments to members. The amount of money returned to any individual member varies depending upon electricity consumption.
“Although a final decision won’t be made by the Board of Directors until later this year, our financial projections indicate that we again will be in a position to return to the Cooperative’s owners an amount of money that exceeded what we needed to operate for the year,” Board Chairman Jeannette Everett said. “These are challenging economic times for households, businesses and nonprofit organizations alike. It is principally because CEC’s staffers do such an excellent job operating the Cooperative with a keen eye on spending that members are being well served with financial resources to spare.”
Harmon noted that, per the latest survey conducted by an independent third party, member satisfaction levels are high. CEC’s Cooperative Attitude and Performance Score stood at 92, according to the survey conducted earlier this year by Inside Information Inc. of Smithville, Mo. That is three points higher than the average satisfaction score for rural electric cooperatives nationally. Community Electric’s Net Promoter Score rose to 74 in the spring survey, an 18-point jump over the 2023 result.