Inland Power & Light Co., the Spokane-based electric cooperative, has posted a net margin of $4.8 million for 2016, up 50 percent from $3.2 million in 2015.

For the nonprofit co-op, net margins are the equivalent of a for-profit company’s net income.

“The increase in margins is attributed to Inland having very few outages or major storms during 2016,” says CEO Chad Jensen.

Historic wind and snow storms in November and December 2015 decreased the co-op’s margins by more than $2 million that year. Inland Power posted a net margin of $4.4 million in 2014.

Also, Inland Power’s investments into system improvements in recent years has helped to reduce significantly outages and ongoing maintenance, Jensen says.

“We have an aggressive five-year distribution maintenance plan, and we’re now turning our focus on our long-term substation and infrastructure needs,” he says.

Inland Power is what’s called a full-requirements customer of Bonneville Power Administration, which markets the electricity generated by the Pacific Northwest’s federal dams and provides all of the Spokane co-op’s power requirements at cost-based rates.

Jensen says the co-op doesn’t anticipate increasing its rates this year even though BPA is anticipating raising its rates on Oct. 1.

“Inland Power is planning to absorb these increased costs and does not anticipate passing along any of the anticipated BPA power rate increases to our members until the winter heating season of 2017 is concluded, in April of 2018,” he says.

Inland Power isn’t expecting a rate increase higher than 4 percent that spring, he says.

Jensen says BPA has experienced increased rate pressure due to rising fish and wildlife preservation, conservation, and maintenance costs. The current projected rate increase from BPA is expected to be between 5 percent and 7 percent.

Inland Power’s lead source of energy is hydropower, which makes up 84 percent of its energy portfolio. Also, 10 percent comes from nuclear energy, 3 percent from wind, and 3 percent from gas and coal. Inland Power’s fuel mix is 97 percent carbon free and 87 percent renewable, Jensen says.

Inland Power reported operating revenue of just under $67 million for 2016 with total assets of $315.4 million at the end of the year, compared to $66.8 million in operating revenue and $321 million in total assets in 2015, Jensen says.

At the end of 2016, Inland Power was serving 40,350 members, up from 39,990 members at the end of 2015. The company employs 85 people and serves 13 counties, maintaining a total of 7,600 miles of utility line, he says.

Inland Power’s total cost of electric services in 2016 was $63.2 million, down from $66.1 million in 2015. Inland Power has the 14th lowest rates in the country for cooperatives, Jensen says.

Inland Power & Light will host its annual meeting for cooperative members on March 25 at the Pavilion at Northern Quest Tribal Resort & Casino.