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08/23/2023 - 02:40 PM
LEGAL NOTICE: United Power Bylaw Proposed Amendment Wednesday | August 23, 2023 The Board of Directors proposes the following amendments to United Power's bylaws. Read more >04/29/2019 - 04:25 PM
Lineman Appreciation Day: A Lineman’s Responsibility is Never-Ending Thursday | April 18, 2019 Today is National Lineman Appreciation Day, celebrated each year on April 18 to pay homage to the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to keep the lights on. Read more >07/29/2019 - 06:00 AM
Title Lineman Going Back to Guatemala /sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/JulyAug2019_NL_Guatemala.jpg?itok=oP6BY7ff Tuesday | July 23, 2019 Card Teaser Kelly Snow has been selected to return later this summer as part of a crew of to provide power to the village of Sillab. For the second time in as many years, United Power lineman Kelly Snow will represent the cooperative in Guatemala. Snow has been selected to return later this summer as part of a crew of 20 linemen from Colorado and Oklahoma to provide power to yet another isolated jungle village. This past summer, Snow spent three weeks near Playa Grande setting poles, stringing line and hanging transformers to provide power to residents in two remote jungle villages for the first time. “It’s really an honor to be invited back,” Snow said. “Most of us have never had to go more than a day without electricity and the benefits it provides. These villages have never had that experience.” Sillab, the village they’ll be energizing in October, is located in the mountainous jungles of north central Guatemala. Sillab is home to approximately 60 households, one elementary school and four churches, none of which have known the benefits of reliable and affordable electricity. While much of the work will be the same, the terrain presents a new difficulty for Snow and his fellow linemen. Crews will have to overcome harsh conditions in order to string electric line more than six miles to Sillab, including dense jungle foliage, mountainous terrain, frequent rain and high humidity. Harsh conditions and grueling manual labor contributed to fatigue and dehydration in the relatively flatter areas of Playa Grande. “You don’t quickly forget the experience of working in the rain and humidity,” Snow said. “But steep inclines add another level of safety we’ll have to prepare for and pay careful attention to during the project.” In Playa Grande, long days seemed longer without access to major equipment, a condition that will also worsen in Sillab. With a few spare linemen and some light equipment, the utility near Playa Grande was able to provide a little help. The utility and power supplier near Sillab have only one lineman each and no equipment. “It will be tough, physical labor,” Snow said, “but I’m proud to be a part of it. At the end of the day, if you can be proud of what you did, the pain and the challenge is worth it.” For more than 80 years, electric cooperatives have been helping small, rural communities across the country thrive. It’s one of the seven cooperative principles: concern for community. With the help of NRECA International, cooperatives have been able to take that mission global, providing millions of small communities with the gift of electricity. “This is why we were founded – bringing power to rural America,” Snow said. “The impact electricity makes on one of these villages is tangible and opens up doors to future possibilities.”01/24/2019 - 09:32 AM
Title Linemen Provide Opportunity to Guatemalan Villages /sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/Dec2018_NL_Guatemala.png?itok=JuLGbFMN Monday | December 3, 2018 Card Teaser In October, lights went on for the first time in two villages nestled deep in the jungles of northwest Guatemala. In October, lights went on for the first time in two villages nestled deep in the jungles of northwest Guatemala. After weeks of grueling manual labor in adverse conditions far from home, line crews from Oklahoma and Colorado completed work on a project to provide the villages of Pie del Cerro and Tierra Blanca Salinas the gift of electricity. Between long days caused by the lack of major equipment and staving off dehydration brought on by dense jungle humidity, crews often returned to their rooms late in the evening exhausted – ready to do it again the next day. “Nothing came easy,” United Power lineman Kelly Snow said. “We had to gut it out each and every day. But even on the worst days, everyone showed up and gave it their all. We came to accomplish something, and we did.” Line crews were stationed in the small city of Playa Grande, located roughly 300 miles from Guatemala City. Each morning, crews loaded into trucks and traversed dirt-packed and often jarring roads to the villages they’d be powering nearly an hour away. Once there, work had to be completed without the use of specialized tools or mechanical equipment, and vehicles were to be used for transportation only. Snow, who’s experienced the worst working conditions as a lineman in Colorado’s Front Range, said it’s hard to prepare for the difficulties of working in a third world country. “It’s like stepping back in time,” he said. “We talked to others who were on projects before us and looked at all the photos, but there are still elements of the unknown. It’s hot and humid the whole time; hard to stay hydrated.” Despite the harsh working conditions, crews were able to complete the first half of the project in just over a week – providing power to the first of the two villages – and the whole project on time. “I’m proud to have been a part of this project to provide power to these families and kids,” Snow said. “It gives these kids the chance to continue their studies, and maybe even opens the door for computers or cell phones one day.” Brief reprieves gave Snow and other linemen an opportunity to spend some time building relationships with villagers, playing games with the children and exploring the nearby jungle and lakes. Above and beyond providing electricity, the crews were also able to gift each household with two-year water filters and each school with a laptop and wheelchair. “The Rural Electric Association was founded on the principal of bringing electricity to rural America,” Snow said just before the project. “It’s an inspiration to be a part of that foundation and spreading it to other countries.”05/11/2020 - 11:09 AM
Local Food Banks Receive Member Choice Grants Monday | May 11, 2020 Nominations quickly began arriving, and it was clear members saw an immediate need to provide basic food supplies for their neighbors at this time. Read more >05/30/2018 - 03:30 PM
Looking for Kids to Help Spread Electrical Safety Messages Wednesday | February 14, 2018 United Power is enlisting the help of local children to create electrical safety posters that will be displayed for National Electrical Safety Month in May. Read more >12/02/2025 - 08:47 AM
Maintaining A Standard Wednesday | November 26, 2025 United Power consistently demonstrates excellence in system performance. Read more >03/05/2025 - 02:01 PM
Title March Message from Mark A. Gabriel /sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message_85.jpg?h=45932144&itok=fpbFupeq Wednesday | March 5, 2025 Card Teaser A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer. A member recently asked a very good question about the price of utility-scale solar and how that related to the overall plan we have for the future of our power supply, particularly in light of the new 162 MW Mountain Peak Power natural gas plant being constructed in Weld County (where we also have 11 MW of battery storage). What drove the question was the announcement of our latest solar plant, the 150 MW Byers Solar Farm being built in Adams County with cooperation from one of our long-time partners, Silicon Ranch. The question also reflected on the decision we executed last year to regain our independence as a cooperative. The raw cost of energy is just one piece in the puzzle of activities that guide the operations of an electric distribution cooperative like United Power. Energy needs to cover every minute of every hour of every day, with enough back-up capacity to ensure the lights stay on and our economy keeps flowing. Buying energy and capacity requires a mix of supply options over a variety of contracts, and United Power — with the support of TEA Solutions, a national energy marketing and risk management services provider for community-owned utilities — works to balance the system both in real time and over the course of years. Determining power supply is a multi-factored math and physics activity, coordinated at the local and regional levels. It involves not just the power supply but transmission, as well. The reality for much of the West is that congestion on the transmission system is a challenge for planning and operations, much like getting to a Broncos game in highway congestion. We are receiving numerous well-priced power supply offers for the coming years. Unfortunately, the pathway to “bring it home” limits our ability to take advantage of some of best deals on the market. There are plans for new transmission across the West — plans that we support — but the harsh reality is that it will take a decade or more to develop, permit, and build. We simply cannot wait and hope for new transmission in time to meet our growing demand. Given these challenges, United Power has devised a three-pronged approach to maintain power supply for our growing member base over the coming years, laid out in the recently-revised Our Cooperative Roadmap (Roadmap). First, we are focusing on hyper-localization, which keeps generating resources inside our service territory. Local power means less need for transmission and fewer line losses (energy lost as electricity is transported from point-to-point due to resistance). Plus it contributes to local tax revenue. The Byers Solar Farm is a great example. Second, we are continuously improving our system as we evolve into a distribution system operator, which will allow us to use what we already have more effectively. Adding battery energy storage systems merges these first two concepts. We now have nearly 20% of our load in either four- or six-hour storage systems. Finally, we are preparing for the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) West, a power market that will allow us to buy and sell power more efficiently. This is planned for Spring 2026, and United Power will be ready. We are living in a more dynamic energy market than any time in history, with more options than ever before. There is no single source of power that will supply all of our needs. That is why United Power truly believes in and acts on an “all of the above” energy strategy. Whether it is supporting nearly 13,000 residential solar systems, signing 30-year solar purchase power agreements, joining a market, or buying output from natural gas plants, the team works every day to anticipate and plan for your power needs. Just as we need a variety of transportation options — bicycles, cars, trucks, trains, and planes — so, too, do we need options in power supply. As always, please feel free to reach out to me personally with any questions or comments. If you belong to a group that would like a United Power team member discuss the Roadmap at an upcoming meeting, please contact us.02/29/2024 - 10:14 AM
March Message from Mark A. Gabriel Thursday | February 29, 2024 A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer. Read more >03/01/2022 - 03:31 PM
Title March/April Message from Mark A. Gabriel /sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message.jpg?h=45932144&itok=pNegmSzP Tuesday | March 1, 2022 Card Teaser A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer. Looking ahead while focusing on the present is a challenge in today’s electric power industry. Whether it is changing regulations; the desire of more members to engage with us as their electric cooperative in new ways; the advancement of technologies; or simply the expectations of high quality, always on, reliable power, being prepared is key. Thanks to the hard work of staff at United Power, supported by our Board of Directors, we have created “Our Cooperative Roadmap,” or Roadmap, to document both where we are today and how we are looking toward the future. The Roadmap has four Guiding Principles: Reliability, Affordability, Flexibility, and Responsibility. Each of these principles embodies the elements most critical to us as we seek to prepare for the future while building and maintaining the important investments we have made on behalf of our members over the decades. These are the lenses through which we evaluate options such as reimagining our power supply, integrating new technologies, preparing for future markets, and supporting the needs of the workforce. Reliability Strive to deliver high-quality, uninterrupted service to our members through the design, operation, protection, and maintenance of a failure-resistant and resilient electric distribution system. Affordability Continually seek fair and equitable wholesale rates, manage distribution costs in a highly efficient manner, and responsibly allocate those costs across our membership with stable and transparent rate options. Flexibility Demonstrate maximum agility and adaptiveness through forward-looking plans; versatile, innovative programs and business models; and diverse power supply options as we respond to changes in our environment and the needs of our members and community. Responsibility Act honestly, ethically, sustainably, and in the best interest of our members and communities as we manage operations and secure resources. The Roadmap defines the working plan priorities for your cooperative and aligns the work of employees at United Power. The document will ensure continuity in our thinking and guide us as we make important resource decisions. The Roadmap also keeps us looking at the immediate opportunities and challenges we face. The criticality of electricity has never been more evident as a growing number of our members work from home. The advances of technology require high quality, reliable power. And, as our communities grow, so too do the demands for more power. A good example in planning ahead and working for today lies in the investments your cooperative made in our fire mitigation plan. Several years ago, we began switching to covered cable in the mountains, undergrounded critical lines, and moved to an advanced breaker. While no plan can perfectly protect us from the unpredictability of wildfires, we were ready to respond during the recent events here in Colorado. Fortunately, our system was not impacted. The same is true as we ready our technologies to accept more distributed energy resources, storage, and solar on our system while preparing for the advent of a power market here in the west. We encourage members to read Our Cooperative Roadmap and engage in future discussions about it. The senior team and I welcome the opportunity to come and speak to community groups and will be posting several videos online that cover the Roadmap’s key elements. Our Cooperative Roadmap covers a wide range of areas – all designed with you, our member, in mind. Importantly, it helps define the cooperative’s future and keeps us on track today. As always, I welcome your comments, questions, and feedback on any topic, including the Roadmap. Please contact me here.12/06/2022 - 11:21 AM
Title Mark A. Gabriel Announced as New GridWise Alliance Board Member /sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/Grid_Layout.jpg?itok=QANx6rRH Tuesday | December 6, 2022 Card Teaser The GridWise Alliance announced nine new members to its Board of Directors, all strongly committed to advancing the organization's mission to articulate the benefits of grid modernization. Washington D.C. - The GridWise Alliance announced nine new members to its Board of Directors today, all of whom are strongly committed to advancing the organization's mission to articulate the benefits of grid modernization. “The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act are further evidence of the increasing rate of change in the industry. GridWise Alliance and other organizations in the field will play a critical role, and bringing in leaders with fresh perspectives is critical,” said Gil Quiniones, CEO, ComEd and Chair of the GridWise Alliance. “Our new board members bring this type of innovative thinking and leadership to the Board of Directors and continue to ensure that it is at the forefront of our country’s energy transformation.” The new GridWise Alliance Board members who will begin two-year terms, include:- Astrid Atkinson, CEO and Co-Founder, Camus Energy
- Michelle Blaise, Senior Vice President Engineering and Project Management, ComEd
- Russell Boyer, Global Energy Field Director, Dell Technologies
- Michelle Fay, Partner, Guidehouse
- Mark A. Gabriel, President and CEO, United Power
- Hanna Grene, Worldwide Power and Utilities Leader, Microsoft
- Wade Lauer, Senior Vice President Transmission, North America, Siemens Energy Inc.
- Deepa Poduval, Global Advisory Lead, Senior Vice President, Black & Veatch
- Jeannie Salo, Vice President, Government Relations, Schneider Electric
06/05/2019 - 12:19 PM
May is National Electrical Safety Month Thursday | May 2, 2019 May is National Electrical Safety Month, and United Power is joining with the Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI)to raise awareness about potential home electrical hazards and the importance of electrical safety. Read more >