Jackson EMC customers may receive a check in the mail later this year.

The company's board of directors announced the decision to mail $4.75 million in refunds to more than 188,500 people who were customers in 1988 and 2010.

"The money left over after all our expenses are paid gets put back into the cooperative and its capital investments, the board has the option of returning some of that money to our members," Jackson EMC spokeswoman Bonnie Jones said.

Since the company is a cooperative, every customer is considered an owner.

Jackson EMC serves more than 68,000 customers in Hall, Jackson, Banks and Lumpkin counties.

The company has returned $85 million in refunds to its members since it was founded in 1939.

"That's one of the benefits of being part of a cooperative because everyone who gets service from Jackson EMC is also an owner and that's the reason we operate that way," Jones said.

The amount each member receives from the return depends on the amount of electricity they have used.

If the company had 25 customers and $100 in revenue for a single year, a customer whose bills totaled $5 for the year would be allocated 5 percent of the company's margins, said Steve Yates, Jackson EMC's director of accounting.

"We have electric revenue for the year and your miniscule percentage of that revenue is how much you're allocate," he said.

The refunds are expected to be mailed in December.