In July, FreeState consumer-members saw an allocation amount on their monthly electric bill, but the capital credit retirement will be delayed.
The board of trustees elected to delay the retirement of capital credits after concluding that the impact on revenue due to weather and the global pandemic needs to be reevaluated before making a decision that could alter the financial stability of the cooperative.
“Earlier in the spring we communicated to members that we were going to see some financial impacts due to the weather,” said Steve Foss, FreeState CEO. “But we didn’t anticipate a global pandemic.”
“The pandemic did impact our revenue, but, with changes we made as a staff, we were able to mitigate drastic measures and maintain our projected budget,” Foss said. “But part of maintaining was the decision to delay the payment of capital credits.”
Foss said that once the moratorium on disconnection for nonpayment was lifted, and as the weather shifts to warmer temperatures the board is optimistic that capital credit payments may come later in the year.
“The cooperative has gotten to a point where we are looking at how we are going to move forward,” said Foss.
Once the board of trustees makes a decision regarding capital credits, FreeState will communicate that information with our consumer-members.