Storm & Outage Center
Member-owned cooperatives, like EMEPA, are not-for-profit organizations, which are operated for the benefit of their members. Any revenues that exceed expenses are referred to as margins. Each year, margins from the prior year are assigned to our members based on the amount they were billed for electricity during the year.
On approval by the board of directors, a portion of the capital credits are retired and returned to members and former members who contributed those margins. The remainder is invested in the facilities so the cooperative does not have to borrow all the money needed for upgrades and growth used to serve the members.
Frequently Asked Questions
The amount of capital credits you earn in a given year is based on the amount of capital you contribute to the co-op through payment of your monthly electric bills. The capital credits are a dollar amount assigned to members based on power billings during a particular year. This means that members who used more electricity over a year will receive more capital credit allocations than members who used less electricity.
They remain on the books in your name until they are retired. We encourage you to ensure that EMEPA has your current mailing address.
Account Address Change Form (PDF)Legal heirs should contact their local EMEPA office. A valid driver's license and birth certificate must be presented. EMEPA will provide the heir with an affidavit that must be signed and notarized. If there are multiple heirs, the affidavit must be signed by each heir.
Possibly, but not necessarily. The board of directors must authorize a retirement before capital credits are returned. When considering a retirement, the directors analyze the financial health of the co-op and will not authorize a retirement if it's not in the best financial interest of the co-op and its members.