We recently hosted two of our three 2026 member meetings, and I always enjoy getting out into the communities we serve and spending time with our members. This year, we made a point to focus on service — how as a member-owned cooperative, we are different in how we serve you. One of the common refrains I hear from members — they generally like us, but are often surprised when we get a chance to sit down and talk in depth about what it really means to be “member-owned” and how we’re different from other kinds of electric utilities.
One of the most important ways that we serve our members is our stewardship of your capital credits. Our newer members are often surprised to learn that the capital credits they’ve been accruing annually since they joined the co-op will typically be refunded to them as a credit on their bills once they have been members for long enough to make it through our 20-year cycle of capital credit retirements. For many longtime members, they see this as a welcome relief to one of their higher summer bills — typically the June bill — with the capital credit retirement offsetting a significant portion, if not all, of that bill. In 2025, members and former members of the cooperative received capital credit retirements totaling $11.3 million dollars.
Another way we serve and that we’re different from other utilities: Because we are member-owned, we remain member-focused. When you call our office, you’re speaking with one of your neighbors working in Lancaster, Hillsboro, or Barnesville, and the same great team is responding to your emails and even your website chats. Our average speed to answer calls during business hours across 2025 was 34 seconds to reach a live electric representative, and 15 seconds to reach a live fiber internet representative.
Finally, we are different in how we serve through our focus on continually improving reliability. We know that nothing matters more to you than having reliable power. When a storm or other event interrupts your service, know that we are doing everything possible to restore it as quickly and safely as possible. Our average annual outage duration per member has decreased almost 30% from the 2015–2019 period, and we continue to do the work and make new investments required to improve your service and reliability.
Thank you for being a member of South Central Power, and for spending time reviewing our annual report. Remember that we are always here to serve you, and we hope we get the opportunity to interact with you soon.
By Rick Lemonds, president and CEO