Kris Mikkelsen, CEO of Spokane-based Inland Power & Light Co., has informed the electric cooperative's board and employees that she plans to retire next spring. The board has hired an executive search firm to help find her replacement.

The executive search firm, Colorado-based Mycoff, Fry & Prouse LLC, and the board are evaluating both internal and external candidates, Mikkelsen says.

"I leave knowing that the utility is in great shape," she says. "We have an excellent management team in place (and) among the lowest rates in the country. The reliability and condition of the infrastructure is very good, and we enjoy strong member satisfaction."

Inland Power provides electricity to more than 39,000 commercial, residential, and agricultural customers spread over 13 counties in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. In September 2009, Inland Power moved to a larger building at 10110 W. Hallett Road, on the West Plains, from its longtime headquarters at 320 E. Second, east of downtown Spokane.

Mikkelsen has been with the company for 30 years, starting in 1981 as an accounting supervisor. She was named Inland Power's general manager in 2000, with her title changing to CEO about a year later. During her tenure, the nonprofit co-op's annual net margins—the equivalent of a for-profit company's net income—have remained well above $3 million. It expects that figure to be above $5 million this year, Mikkelsen says.

Its revenues total about $60 million a year.

Last year, the co-op refunded $1.25 million in what are called capital credits to its members, which is the same amount it had refunded in five of the six prior years. Capital credits are sums returned to members in the form of checks out of any revenue surplus above what the cooperative needs to cover operating expenses and capital expenditures.

Mikkelsen says Inland Power is currently preparing to make that same $1.25 million refund this year.

Inland Power raised its rates 8.5 percent in spring 2010, mostly to pass along a 7 percent increase in the wholesale price the co-op pays the Bonneville Power Administration. The BPA had enacted the wholesale price increase in October 2009, its first in six years, but Inland Power opted to delay increasing its rates until six months later to minimize the impact on its members.

BPA again raised its wholesale price about 7 percent this past October, Mikkelsen says, but she adds that Inland Power also decided to wait until after winter before considering any rate increase.

"We'll have another modest increase in 2012, most likely," she says.

As far as Mikkelsen's plans after retiring, she says she doesn't have a definite track set.

"I don't have it figured out yet," she says. "I'm looking forward to spending more time with family and friends."