MONROE, Ga. — When most Walton Electric Membership Corp. customer-owners review their bill this December, they’ll notice a nice credit. That’s because the cooperative is returning another $6 million in the latest capital credit refund.

The cooperative’s board of directors recently approved this year’s distribution, bringing the all-time total returned to $93,571,000. Customer-owners who had accounts in 1991, 1992, 1993 and/or 2016 are included. That means more than 95 percent of current customer-owners will get a refund.

“Walton EMC is a cooperative, owned by the same people who receive its services,” CEO Ronnie Lee said. “Showing a profit is self-defeating and is why we return leftover revenues. The individual amount returned to customer-owners is based on their electric bills, or, in other words, the amount of business they did with their company.”

After paying off debt and establishing a reserve for unexpected events (like a catastrophic ice storm), the board determines if it’s financially prudent to issue a refund. If so, most refunds are distributed by a credit on electric bills. This saves the cooperative and its customer-owners tens of thousands of dollars in check printing and postage costs.