Fall River Electric Cooperative announces the payment of another $1 million in the form of a rebate to 2020 owner/customers of the Co-op. The Fall River board wanted to return current profits, referred to as margins, to all the Cooperativeâs owners knowing that many have been impacted by the on-going pandemic. Additionally, this $1M will be infused back into the local economies of the communities of eastern Idaho and southwestern Montana.
This is on top of the $1.015 million plus paid out to owner-members in December through the Cooperativeâs Patronage Capital program, meaning Fall River Electric has now distributed over $2 million dollars within the last two months. Februaryâs disbursement is to those customers that purchased power last year while the December payments were to members of the Co-op that purchased power back in 2000. The patronage capital program is where extra revenues over the cost of operations is then disbursed to its owner-members on an approximate twenty-year cycle. Unlike investor-owned utilities that pay profits to stockholders, Fall River Electricâs patronage capital is a customerâs investment in the Cooperative.