DECEMBER 2020
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WFEC Renewables Report
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Operation Round Up report
A supplement to the Oklahoma Living
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Christmas Cranberry Salad
Lig ght Post
the
PUBLISHED FOR MEMBERS OF KIAMICHI ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
S TAT E O F YO U R C O O P E R AT I V E WITH CEO BRETT ORME
Hey, Kiamichi Electric Members. 2020 has been a very trying year to say the least. COVID-19 has had a substantial effect on all of us. I am very disappointed it was necessary to postpone this year’s annual meeting. I always enjoy the opportunity to meet with you, our members face to face and hear what is important to you. With the current status of the health risk to members and employees as well as CDC guidelines postponing seemed the safest option available. We were also not able to secure our normal venue due to the pandemic which caused other logistical concerns. I would like to update you on the state of your cooperative. The first item I would like to address in the State of Your Cooperative is your cooperative’s financial health. Kiamichi is in good financial health. Your year-end revenue was $40.4 million which was up approximately 5% from the previous year. Your net margins were $1.66 million at fiscal year-end. Kiamichi’s lenders require us to maintain margins on an annual basis, but these are ultimately returned to you, the members of the cooperative. CAPITAL CREDITS AND FINANCIAL AUDIT
Your Board voted to return just over $1 million in margins in 2020. This makes the 10th straight year that the board has voted to return at least 1 years’ worth of margins back to our members. This puts Kiamichi Electric Cooperative 4.5 years ahead of schedule for returning these margins to the membership. Your Board also voted to return these margins early this year to try and help in a small way by getting the money back in the pockets of the members during these difficult times.
KEC has returned a total of $14.9 million in capital credit retirements since inception in 1945. Returning these margins as capital credits to you our members is what makes electric cooperatives different! These are not returned as profits for shareholders but to you the members. Every year the KEC Board of Trustees contracts with an independent external auditor to audit Kiamichi Electric’s financials. This is done through a competitive bidding process. The audit ending calendar year 2019 had a clean audit opinion and there were no material misstatements. The audited financials were published in the Light Post that was sent out to all members. The financial statements can also be viewed on the website at www.kiamichielectric.org FUTURE OF KEC RATES
Something important to all of us and that is electric rates: In 2019 Kiamichi Electric’s average residential rate was 11.2 cents which was below the state average for co-ops of 11.55 cents, ranking KEC at number 15 out of 27 cooperatives in the state. KEC is planning to do a cost of service study in 2021 to evaluate the adequacy of our current rates as well as the cost recovery from all member classes. There will be some upward pressure on rates in 2021. We are still benefitting from low fuel costs but loss of load in some sectors has the potential of driving up our wholesale cost of purchased power. This expense accounts for 60% of KEC’s total costs. KEC did restructure rates in 2017, but this was revenue neutral to the cooperative. The last rate increase KEC had was in 2014. A cost of service study that is conducted by an
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Holiday Hours Kiamichi Electric Cooperative will be closed Dec. 23-24 for Christmas. To report a service problem during this time, please call 800-888-2731, or report your trouble using KEC’s customer service portal.
