DECEMBER 2024
THE MESSENGER A Publication for North Arkansas Electric Cooperative Members
Shoes for all
NAEC returns $2.1 million in capital credits North Arkansas Electric Cooperative (NAEC) will return $2,161,790 in capital credits to members in December. This marks the 37th consecutive year NAEC has refunded margins. NAEC has returned more than $51.5 million since being founded in 1939.
North Arkansas Electric Cooperative employees deliver shoes to third graders at Salem Elementary School, including Macy Qualls’ class. The Sole Power Project ensures each third grader at the 12 public schools in the co-op’s service area get a new pair of athletic shoes.
What are capital credits?
Unlike investor-owned utilities, NAEC operates as a not-for-profit cooperative and is owned by the members we serve. At the end of each year, the co-op subtracts, on a taxable basis, operating expenses from the amount of money earned through rates. The remaining balance is called taxable margins. Taxable margins left over at the end of the year are allocated, or assigned, to each member’s account based on the amount of electricity for which each was billed. The capital is retained by NAEC to use as operating capital for a period of time. This capital decreases the need for NAEC to raise rates or borrow money to build, maintain and expand a reliable electric distribution system. Every fall, the NAEC Board of Directors evaluates the overall financial condition of the co-op and decides the amount of capital, if any, to refund.
Keeping the lights on is job No. 1 for Arkansas’ 17 electric cooperatives, which provide reliable, affordable and responsible power to more than 1.2 million homes, farms and businesses across our state. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making our job more difficult. In May, the EPA published its final power plant rule regulating existing coal and new natural gas-based power plants. EPA’s rule jeopardizes affordable and reliable electricity by forcing the premature closure of always-available power plants while also making it more complicated to permit, site and build mission critical power plants. This rule couldn’t come at a worse time for Arkansas and our nation. Electricity demand is surging, meanwhile the EPA is forcing dramatic cuts to our energy supply and potentially our national security. Data centers, new manufacturing facilities and our daily lives require more and more electricity. In fact, U.S. power consumption is expected to rise to record highs this year and next. National grid planners forecast that by 2028, demand for electricity will grow by an additional 38 gigawatts. That’s like adding another California to the grid. Meanwhile, the nation’s supply of electricity is already decreasing as always-available power plants are being prematurely shut down. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has warned that 19 states — including Arkansas — could see rolling blackouts during times of high electrical usage over the next five years. You might be wondering why electric cooperatives can’t just use more solar and wind energy. The answer is: We are. But solar and wind simply can’t meet our state’s needs alone when the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Here’s just one example: Winter Storm Uri. In February 2021, for 58 hours, the five wind facilities we depend on produced no power. No elec-
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— See POWER PLANTS on Back
EPA’s power plant rule wrong for Arkansas’ future