Inland Power & Light Co., the Spokane-based electric cooperative, posted a decline in net margins in 2001 compared with the year earlier, but the number of customers it serves and the amount of electricity it sold both grew.


Inland Power also refunded to its member customers $995,000 in capital credits, close to the benchmark $1 million in capital credits it tries to reach annually.


Capital credits consist of a cooperatives income above that needed to cover capital expenditures and operating expenses.


Overall, we had a great year, CEO Kris Mikkelsen says. We havent struggled with a lot of the issues that many of the utilities within the region have.


Mikkelsen mainly is speaking of Inland Powers ability to keep its power rates stablethanks to a long-term power contract it has with the Bonneville Power Administrationwhen other utilities have had to raise their rates.


The cooperative reported revenue of 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour of power it provided in 2001, the same per-kilowatt amount it posted in 1999 and 2000.


While Inland Power has maintained stable rates, its net margins fell by about 25 percent last year, to about $3.55 million from $4.75 million in 2000. For a cooperative, net margin is the equivalent of net income.


Mikkelsen says the biggest factor in the utilitys decreased net margins were repair costs associated with a major snowstorm during the first week of December. Backup crews had to be called in from other utilities outside the Spokane area to help restore power, she says, and that was a major reason Inlands operations and maintenance costs increased by $700,000 in 2001, compared with 2000.


Other rising costsincreased insurance premiums, for examplealso played a factor.


Inland Powers customer base and electric sales both rose modestly. At year-end, its customer base had edged up 2 percent, to 31,800 from 31,100, while its electric sales climbed to 675 million kilowatt hours during 2001, up from 671 million kilowatt hours in 2000.