Investment and Participation: The Co-op Difference // December 2025 CEO Column
Happy holidays! I want to use this month’s column to follow up on the final two areas of interest indicated in October’s Member Satisfaction survey: capital credits and off-peak controls.
As a member of an electric cooperative, you invest in LREC through your revenue contribution. Each year, any margin (revenue after expenses) earned by LREC is reinvested in the cooperative. At the same time, LREC’s margin is proportionally allocated, based on your share of revenue contributions during the year, and recorded to capital credit accounts for each of the members. These accounts are maintained until the credits are retired (paid) in full. Capital credits represent each member’s ownership interest of the cooperative.
That being said, credits aren’t paid out immediately. We also use that margin to continually invest in the cooperative through operating capital, necessary reserves, storm damage, and other expenses to ensure reliable service. When the co-op is in a financially favorable position, capital credits are issued — also called general retirement — to members following approval by LREC’s Board of Directors. The period of time between allocation and retirement varies between co-ops and is up to each organization’s board.
Once retirement is approved, capital credits are paid out to members with an active account as a credit on their monthly bill; checks are issued if an account is inactive. It’s a tangible way we reinforce the owner aspect unique to cooperatives and acknowledges the patronage provided by our members.
In regard to our off-peak control programs, I want to provide some clarification and guidance in response to your comments and questions — specifically, the frequency of our load control periods, how we inform members of upcoming load control, and details on program requirements and participation.
All of LREC’s off-peak programs partner with our wholesale power provider, Great River Energy; as such, load control periods experienced by our members are driven by factors affecting GRE’s entire system—such as price changes within the energy market, increased demand, and capacity limitations. In addition, while GRE does provide a load management plan at the beginning of both winter and summer seasons, these schedules are largely developed using normal weather and market condition estimates and may need to be adjusted in response to extreme temperatures, plant outages, and/or emergencies affecting the entire grid occurring outside of our service area.
And, while it may seem that control periods happen too frequently, consider the following: Members on our interruptible water heater program in 2024 experienced 50 instances of load control accounting for 273 hours — roughly only 3% of the 8,763 hours of electricity a home uses per year. (Note:Through mid-November 2025, members on the same program have experienced 55 control periods, or 326 hours.)
Finally, members looking to add off-peak to their billing should be aware of certain requirements; for example, a minimum 80-gallon tank is needed to participate in peak shave interruptible water heater programs.
Please know that these programs were designed with the intent to save all our members money by avoiding purchasing energy at its most expensive, and we’re committed to providing as much notice as possible regarding upcoming control periods. Participating members can also sign up to receive text and/or email notifications for multiple programs on multiple phone numbers or email addresses at www.lrec.coop/loadcontrol, including information on current and next-day control.
From ALL of us at LREC—have a safe and warm holiday season and Happy New Year! See you in 2026!
Cooperatively yours, Joel Janorschke, CEO