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MATTERS

Check the mail or your bill Capital credits refunds coming in May! Money is coming back to members this May thanks to a $5.6 million capital credits retirement approved by your board of directors!

Checks begin mailing mid-May, so be sure to check your mailbox! Members qualifying for a $35 or more refund will be mailed a check separate from their electric bill. Those qualifying for less will see it as a credit to their electric account in May. Members new to the cooperative as of 2022 will be eligible for capital credit refunds beginning next year.

As a cooperative, Blue Ridge Energy doesn’t earn profits. Instead, revenues remaining after all expenses are paid each year are considered “margins.” Margins are allocated annually to members and reflect your member equity (ownership) in the cooperative.

After being used for a period of years as capital to help finance reliability projects, these funds are returned to members.

This process helps reduce the need for loans, which in turn, helps keep your electricity rates lower. It also helps maintain a healthy balance between debt and equity to ensure your cooperative’s financial health and stability.

The percentage of equity to be retired and refunded to members is determined annually by your board of directors based on your cooperative’s financial condition. This year, that amount is 3 percent.

Over the history of Blue Ridge Energy, more than $87 million has been returned to members.

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Working to manage costs in a rising costs environment As a cooperative we exist to provide at-cost electricity and look out for the best interests of our members. We work every day, in many ways, to not only keep your power reliable, but also affordable.

As our entire nation faces economic challenges from rising inflation, your cooperative and the energy market as a whole are also impacted by rising costs. Shortages of supplies and labor, global factors, strong consumer demand, as well as impacts from the pandemic are some of the key reasons behind rising prices.

We’re seeing supply cost increases and shortages in all areas of operations. For example, the prices of transformers, underground conductors and other supplies necessary for maintaining the electric system have increased up to 36 percent and delivery timelines have also increased significantly.

Fleet cost of our service vehicles is rising dramatically, both for fuel and the vehicles themselves. Vendors who have never, or rarely, increased costs are now forced to pass along increases.

Leaders of your cooperative are evaluating the impact of rising costs on our operations and modeling the effect on wholesale power, which makes up our largest expense.

We will keep members informed of our findings primarily through this newsletter and in other formats.

It has been nearly a decade since our last rate increase of 2.5 percent in October of 2013.

From Blue Ridge CEO, Doug Johnson

Through planning and internal efforts, we’ve been able to mitigate normal operational increases over the last nine years. This has been achieved through favorable wholesale power costs, internal WorkSmart savings, and benefits produced by the cooperative’s propane and fuels and fiber subsidiaries.

As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, we only implement a rate adjustment when absolutely necessary — and we work hard to benefit members with savings. We’re pleased we were able to temporarily REDUCE rates for a period of time between 2014-2017 as a result of lower wholesale power cost, allowing us to cut member bills by $27 million. In 2019, we were able to give members $7 million in the form of bill reductions as a result of wholesale power cost savings. And once again in 2021, wholesale power cost savings enabled us to give members $6 million in the form of bill reductions. We’re also pleased we’ve been able to return over $5 million in capital credits to members the past few years and will do so again this May! (See more details in this newsletter and magazine).

Rising costs will affect your cooperative and our country for the foreseeable future, but our commitment to you, our members, is that we will do everything possible to manage this challenging situation while providing the best reliability and member service found anywhere. Even in a rising costs environment, we’re committed to the cooperative principle of keeping your bill as low as possible and providing value to the communities we serve.

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Annual Membership Meeting plans underway: Director election kits coming in late May As a cooperative, Blue Ridge Electric’s Board of Directors is made up of members who represent the entire membership. Each year, Blue Ridge members vote on and elect candidates for four open seats, one in each of the cooperative’s directorate districts: Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany.

Blue Ridge Energy is offering two ways for members to participate in the 2022 Annual Meeting. Members may attend in-person or through a call-in Telephone Town Hall format.

Members have the convenience of voting online or by mail. However, members may choose to vote or change their vote in person during the cooperative’s annual meeting to be held June 23 at 4 p.m. at the corporate headquarters in Lenoir. Voting at the corporate office may be held in a designated area in order to keep safe social distancing practices in effect due to the pandemic.

Membership MAT TERS

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If voting by mail, the proxy must be signed by the member with their choices clearly marked and received in the enclosed postage-paid envelope no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. To comply with proper election management procedures, the form cannot be given to an employee or accepted at any Blue Ridge office.

To ensure the integrity of director elections, Survey and Ballot Systems, an independent election administrator, was approved by the Credentials and Election Committee in December 2021 (committee members’ names are available at BlueRidgeEnergy.com). This committee is comprised of members from across the cooperative’s service area and is responsible for ensuring director elections are properly conducted, including certifying election results.

Director election kits will be sent to members on May 25. Included will be: •

biographical information for all candidates

•

proxy with instructions on how members can vote for candidates in all districts by using one of two options: online or by returning the proxy provided in the kit

•

or, if signed up to receive the email director election kit, you will receive a link in the email to easily vote online

•

postage-paid return envelope

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Bylaws updated: At their regular board meeting held on March 24, 2022, the cooperative’s Board of Directors approved the following update to the cooperative’s bylaws. Redline versions indicating this change as well as the final document are available online at blueridgeenergy.com/governance.

Members may also obtain a full copy of the Bylaws at their local Blue Ridge Energy district office.

Bylaws In Article III, Section 3.02, regarding Qualifications for Directors to become or remain a Director of the Cooperative, the following addition was made: (C) must have been a member for a minimum of three (3) years, and such three (3) year period may include at the time of application by a director candidate, the membership duration of a spouse, as long as the director candidate applies for and becomes a joint member prior to being elected or appointed as a Director of the Cooperative,

Visit us on the web: BlueRidgeEnergy.com CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Doug Johnson EDITOR Renée R. Whitener PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Jacob Puckett

Membership MAT TERS

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DISTRICT OFFICES Caldwell Watauga Ashe Alleghany Wilkes PowerLine*

TOLL FREE (828) 754-9071 (828) 264-8894 (336) 846-7138 (336) 372-4646 (800) 451-5474 (800) 448-2383

(800) 451-5474

OFFICE HOURS: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Monday - Friday Kiosks available

(PowerLine* is an automated account information and outage reporting system)

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