UPSTATE — Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative on April 14 put checks into the mail totaling $1 million to those who received power from the utility in 1986 or 1987 or both.

The capital-credit payments represent a portion of the margins earned in each of those years. Every individual check amount constitutes a member’s pro-rata share of the net earnings during the years covered by the refund.

The cooperative has returned patronage capital to its members in each of the last 33 years. A total of more than $23.2 million has been paid back since the organization’s inception.

Blue Ridge President and CEO Charles Dalton said returning capital credits has a salutary effect.

“During the economic downturn that has gripped our area since 2008, we’ve put into our members’ hands an average of slightly more than $1 million every April,” he said. “Economists estimate that each of those dollars turns over between three and seven times. In addition to injecting some added stimulus into the local economies, the cooperative is also being true to its nonprofit business model.”

Within its five-county Upstate service territory, Blue Ridge supplies more than 64,000 households and businesses with safe and economical electric power.