BRYAN AND PAULDING, OH — Member-owners of North Western Electric Cooperative (NWEC) and Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC) will see a lower electric bill around the holidays.

This month, NWEC is returning $732,432 while PPEC is returning $2.3 million to current and former members. Eligible co-op member-owners will receive the refund as a credit on their electric bill or as a separate check in December. These capital credits represent the cooperative’s margins, or money left over after all bills have been paid.

As not-for-profit community-focused organizations, co-ops like NWEC and PPEC use these margins for investments, such as building or replacing power lines, transformers, and other electric system upgrades to meet member-owners’ evolving needs. This helps keep the co-op’s service reliable.

“PPEC members contribute a portion of the capital necessary to grow the co-op and upgrade electric reliability,” stated PPEC President and CEO George Carter. “Eventually, as the co-op is financially able to do so, the board approves the capital be returned, or ‘retired’ back to those members who contributed it originally.”

Capital credits represent each co-op member’s ownership — or equity — in his or her cooperative. This member-owned business model is what sets electric co-ops apart from municipals or investor-owned utilities.

“We return the money to member-owners around the holidays because that’s when many people need it the most – especially this year with many member-owners struggling due to COVID-19,” said NWEC President/CEO Darin Thorp.

To learn more about capital credits, contact your local electric cooperative. For NWEC, call 800-647-6932 or visit www.nwec.com. For PPEC, call 800-686-2357 or visit www.ppec.coop.