The cooperative is financially stable, and that makes everyone happy. That stability allows us to give you money back when our margins exceed what FreeState needs to operate efficiently. You read that right, and we’re going to return $200,000 to our members in the form of margin stabilization adjustments.
The adjustment is based on individual members’ electric energy purchased in 2021, and you will see your portion of the savings on their bill received in February.
This adjustment is not a capital credit payout. The FreeState Margin Stabilization Adjustment pays back excess margins rather than allocating and waiting to pay them back. Capital credits are allocated annually and retired later. Typically it can take years for capital credits to get paid back to members. This adjustment provides you with money back now.
In addition, members served by the McLouth (East) District will see an additional margin stabilization adjustment from our power supplier, Kansas Electric Power Cooperative (KEPCo). The KEPCo Margin Stabilization is due to FreeState’s power supplier. When KEPCo’s operating margins allowed a refund to member cooperatives, like FreeState, we passed that along to members served in that district. FreeState’s returned portion of the KEPCo MSA was $200,000. The amount of your KEPCo MSA is determined by the metered kilowatt-hours you purchased from FreeState between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2021.
These adjustments come from ownership in a locally owned and locally controlled co-op that works hard to balance the challenge of providing safe, reliable, and affordable service to areas where members are genuinely concerned with the rising costs of everything.
The adjustments will show up on your bill as separate line items for “FreeState Margin Stabilization Adjustment” and “KEPCo Margin Stabilization Adjustment.”
Members with outstanding balances will see the rebate applied to that amount first.