What all does the Customer Charge pay for?

The Customer Charge is the only part of your electric bill that goes to MEC.  The energy charges (kWh) are a passthrough for MEC to pay our wholesale power providers for the electricity and transmission purchased. The Customer Charge is the only method allowed by the ACC to collect or cover all the direct expenses for the cooperative including operations, maintenance, equipment, taxes, payroll, vehicles etc. As a not-for-profit, MEC does not make a profit or pay shareholders dividends or earnings. To qualify for the lowest interest rates possible, MEC is required by our lenders to bring in slightly more income than expenses to demonstrate our ability to collect sufficient revenues to make our payments and to provide for a very small margin for emergencies (unforeseen expenditures). To the extent that MEC does end up with positive margins at the end of the year, those margins are allocated to the members in the form of Capital Credits.