Basin Electric directors vote to return $28.2 million back to members

At their July board meeting, Basin Electric directors authorized the retirement of more than $13.2 million in patronage capital credits as well as a $15 million bill credit to be implemented on members’ July 2022 wholesale power bill.

“These actions are a result of Basin Electric’s strong financial performance, financial stability, and returning value to the membership,” said Board President Wayne Peltier. “Both actions are a testament to Basin Electric’s commitment to the cooperative principles and governance at a local level. The cooperative continues to maintain a stable financial profile and this aligns with our commitment to return value to our members.”

Each year Basin Electric strives to retire about 1/30th of its total undistributed patronage capital as of the end of the prior year. With this distribution, all capital credits through the year 2005 will have been retired and the undistributed patronage capital available for retirement is approximately $1 billion.

“Over the course of just the past five years, the Basin Electric board has approved the distribution of nearly $167 million in capital credits,” said Todd Brickhouse, Basin Electric senior vice president and chief financial officer. “One of the benefits of being a member of a cooperative is that members own their cooperative, and therefore are entitled to the retirement of previously allocated margins that are undistributed. We assign all operating and non-operating before-tax margins to our members on a patronage basis, and the board at its discretion may decide when to retire those margins that were allocated in prior years.”

These two actions will bring the amount returned to members since the year 2000 to over $630 million via patronage capital retirements and bill credits.

Brickhouse said members will receive an official notice of their share of the patronage capital credit retirement, which is determined based on their power purchases during 2005, the year the patronage was originally allocated. The capital credits will be distributed this week. The bill credit will appear on members’ July 2022 power bill that will be issued in August.