KRTA Results Show Co-ops’ Resiliency; KRTA Pro Launches

CFC released the 2022 Key Ratio Trend Analysis (KRTA) today, providing an in-depth look at the financial and operational performance of 812 electric distribution cooperatives for the year ending Dec. 31, 2022. The results show electric cooperatives continue their growth across many metrics, including consumers, sales and utility plant investment, and have maintained strong financial metrics.

“The cooperative business model has enabled rural electric distribution cooperatives to be resilient in the face of rising power costs, supply chain disruptions and inflation while maintaining their focus on improving the quality of life in the communities they serve,” CFC Senior Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Brad Captain said.

Consumer growth nearly surpassed 1%, after exceeding 1% last year for the first time in more than 10 years, with approximately 95% of cooperatives showing increases, including notable pockets of greater than 2% consumer growth in Texas, Florida, Idaho and Utah.

Investment in utility plant also sustained its five-year growth trend, as demonstrated by an increase in the total utility plant ratio, which grew by 8.16% in 2022 compared with 3.95% in 2021.

“Despite increasing costs, electric cooperatives continue to make investments in plant and utility infrastructure to continue to provide their consumers with affordable, reliable and sustainable power into the future,” CFC Senior Vice President and Chief Banking Officer Joel Allen said.

Inflationary pressures, especially rising power costs, are affecting operating expenses. Power costs have increased more than 9% compared with 2021 and continue to be a distribution cooperative’s single largest expense, representing more than 60% of revenue.

In another positive sign, both accounts receivable over 60 days and write-offs continue their pre-pandemic declines, falling to historic lows. Accounts receivable fell to 0.08% of operating revenue from 0.09% in 2021, and write-offs fell to 0.06% of operating revenue from 0.07% in 2021.

Since 1975, CFC has published KRTA—an annual report that tracks the median value of 145 financial and operational ratios for participating distribution cooperatives.

KRTA Pro Launches Alongside 2022 KRTA Results

“Our digital strategy begins, and ends, with our members,” CFC CEO Andrew Don said. “We listen to our members to determine how we can do things differently or what new products could help solve a problem. Over the last several years, we heard from members about the need for greater analytical capabilities in our value-added services. Based on that feedback we developed the KRTA Pro.”

KRTA Pro builds off the nearly 50 years of annual KRTA reports that help distribution cooperatives benchmark their financial and operational performance.

KRTA Pro provides distribution cooperatives a view of 145 ratios with more than 20 years of data online, without the need to download any files. Members can export chart images directly into PowerPoint and data into Excel and compare data against standard peer groups including U.S. median, state, consumer size, power supplier, plant growth, and upper and lower quartile.

In addition to standard peer groups, members can create their own custom peer group.

“The team that developed the KRTA Pro and I are extremely excited to share it with you,” Don said.

CFC members with “Account Portfolio” permission can access the KRTA Pro by logging into the CFC Member Website, opening the Financial Analysis tab and then selecting KRTA Pro. Members will need to have migrated their account to access KRTA Pro.

Traditional KRTA reports will continue to be available in the CFC Member Website Document Center and under the Financial Analysis tab.

2022 KRTA Trends and KRTA Pro CFC Member Training Opportunities

CFC Financial Webinar Series: Review of 2022 KRTA Trends

Wednesday, July 12, 1–2 p.m. ET

CFC Virtual Classroom Series: CFC KRTA Pro

Monday, July 17, 1–3 p.m. ET