Patronage Capital Credits

Patronage capital is like earning a dividend from a company in which you own stock. Midwest Electric has a strong record of annually returning patronage capital.

Since 1955, when the co-op started distributing patronage capital to customers, Midwest has returned $18 million.

Patronage capital is a co-op's margins, or money left over after all bills have been paid each year. Midwest Electric uses the margins for capital expenditures, such as building or replacing lines. Each customer's share is allocated on paper to a patronage capital account. After being used by the cooperative as working capital, the money is returned to customers as patronage capital.

Patronage capital is allocated to customers in proportion to the dollar amount of electricity each customer uses. Money that has been reinvested in the cooperative represents each customer's ownership, or equity, in the cooperative.