2006 KRTA Reflects Electric Co-ops' Consistent Financial Strength.

HERNDON, Va. -- This month, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (NRUCFC) released the results of its 2006 Key Ratio Trend Analysis (KRTA) to electric distribution systems across the country. This year's report, which includes responses from 819 electric distribution cooperatives, allows systems to benchmark their financial and operational ratios over time and compare themselves with their peers.

This year's KRTA illustrates that 2006 was another good financial year for electric cooperatives and illuminates three significant trends, according to Claudia Phillips, NRUCFC vice president and KRTA manager:

* Revenues increased to meet cost-of-power increases and margins increased, indicating that electric cooperatives have mechanisms in place to pass rising fuel costs through to consumers.

* Important financial ratios--such as debt service coverage, equity, general fund level and consumer growth--illustrate that during the most recent five-year period the electric cooperative sector has maintained a strong and very stable financial position.

* Growth continued to be strong--as median growth in total utility plant was 5.6 percent while consumer growth was 1.5 percent.

Other 2006 financial highlights of electric distribution cooperatives, compared with the previous year, include the following medians:

* Times Interest Earned Ratio (TIER) increased to 2.29 from 2.20.

* Equity as a percentage of assets was 42.01 percent.

* Power cost as a percentage of revenue increased slightly to 61.46 percent.

* Total margins per kwh sold rose to 5.89 mills from 4.91 mills.

* Annual growth in kwh sold was 1.77 percent.

* Annual consumer growth was 1.51 percent.

* Government financing, including loans made or guaranteed by the Rural Utilities Service, comprised 72 percent of long-term debt, up from 70 percent.

The KRTA has been published annually for the last 32 years. NRUCFC's 2006 KRTA contains 145 ratios of each cooperative's operations for the past five years. Five other system groupings--U.S. median, state median, cooperatives of similar consumer size, cooperatives primarily served by the same wholesale supplier and cooperatives with similar plant growth--are also presented to each cooperative for comparative purposes.

National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation is a not-for-profit finance cooperative that serves the nation's rural utility systems, the majority of which are electric cooperatives and their subsidiaries. With more than $18 billion in assets, NRUCFC provides its member-owners with an assured source of low-cost capital and state-of-the-art financial products and services.