Flint Energies’ current and past customers to get refund of $3.89 million

About 32,000 current and former Flint Energies customers will be getting refunds totaling $3.89 million.

The refunds will be distributed in September to those consumer-members who received electric service in 1992, 1993 and a portion of 1994, according to a news release from the company.

Flint Energies is a not-for-profit electric cooperative owned by its members, or customers, in parts of 17 Middle Georgia counties. Everyone that receives electric service from Flint has an ownership in the company.

Nearly 18,000 current members of the electric cooperative will receive a credit on their September bill. That’s about 26 percent of Flint’s current membership.

About 13,500 consumers, who are no longer customers, will be mailed checks after Sept. 15. If the amount of the refund is less than $5, the credit will carry over to the next refund.

“Our business is different from an investor-owned utility. Service is our primary focus, not profits,” Marian McLemore, vice president of cooperative communications, said in the release. “Flint Energies has refunded all retained capital credits from our beginning in 1937 through 1993. That’s more than $56 million which has been refunded to our members.”

Last year, the company refunded $3.796 million.

It is “self-defeating” for the company to make a profit, the release said.

Rather than earning profits from monthly payments, after paying off debts and establishing a reserve for unexpected events, Flint returns the excess revenue to its consumer-members, the release said. These funds are called capital credits. Each year, the Flint Energies board of directors determines what portion of capital credits can be retired or returned to the membership.

Not everyone will get a refund.

Each member is assigned capital credits based on the electricity purchased during the year, the release said. This invested amount represents the value of a member’s ownership in the cooperative. Flint Energies uses the “first in, first out” method of retiring capital credits, refunding to members whose capital has been invested for the longest time in the cooperative.

Created in 1937, Flint employs about 230 people and serves more than 90,000 electric meters, and most of its customers are in Houston County.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Flint Energies’ current and past customers to get refund of $3.89 million."