Paulding-Putnam members given credit

VW independent/submitted information

PAULDING — Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative (PPEC) members will see a lower electric bill around the holidays. That’s because cooperative’s Board of Trustees recently approved returning $1.4 million to the its members. Members will see a credit on their December bill.

The money is being returned to members in the form of capital credits, also known as profits or margins.

PPEC is a not-for-profit electric cooperative, and one of the seven cooperative principles is members’ economic participation, which means members contribute equitably to the capital of the co-op.

“Simply put, this means that PPEC members contribute a portion of the capital necessary to grow the co-op,” said PPEC President/CEO George Carter. “Eventually, as the co-op is financially able to do so, the board approves the capital be returned, or ‘retired’, back to those members who contributed it originally.”

Including this year’s capital credit return, Paulding Putnam Electric has returned more than $21 million to its members.

According to Carter, this process is what sets them apart from other utilities.

“We’re not in business to make a profit for shareholders,” he noted. “If there is leftover money, we give it back to members. We return the money to members around the holidays because that’s when many people need it the most.”

Paulding Putnam Electric is a member-owned electric utility serving more than 12,900 member-owners in Paulding, Putnam, Defiance, Van Wert, and Allen counties in Ohio, and Adams and Allen counties in Indiana. For more information, visit the PPEC website at www.PPEC.coop or follow it on Twitter or Facebook.

Anyone with questions about their capital credit refund should call PPEC at 800.686.2357.