United Power is proud to announce the launch of a new scholarship program aimed at supporting graduating high school seniors interested in pursuing a career as a utility lineworker. The United Power Lineman Scholarship will provide two deserving students with a $7,500 scholarship each to support their education in a power line program.

With the increasing demand for skilled lineworkers in the electrical industry, United Power recognizes the importance of investing in the next generation of talent. The scholarship aims to alleviate the financial burden for students entering the lineworker profession and empower them to pursue their career goals.

“We are excited to introduce the United Power Lineman Scholarship as part of our ongoing commitment to support continuing education in the communities we serve,” said Julie Stewart, Community Outreach Coordinator at United Power. “The Lineman Scholarships are the newest addition to our annual cooperative scholarship program and will be awarded along with an additional $31,500 in post-secondary and vocational scholarships in 2024.”

Scholarships are open to graduating high school seniors who are a dependent of a United Power member. Eligibility for scholarships varies, but in general, applicants will be evaluated based on academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, and leadership potential. To be eligible for the Lineman Scholarship, the students must be entering a power line program.

“We encourage all eligible students who are passionate about pursuing a career in the electrical industry to apply for the United Power Lineman Scholarship,” added Stewart. “We are proud to support tomorrow’s lineworkers and the educational goals of all local students.”

Applications for all scholarships from United Power are now open and will close on March 1. Interested students can find more information and access the application here.

Practice Electrical Safety to Protect Your Home and Family

Electrical hazards are one of the leading causes of household fires and other incidents. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, approximately 51,000 electrical fires occur every year and 400 people are electrocuted nationally. Many of these incidents are easily preventable by understanding and adhering to basic electrical safety principles and prioritizing them in your home. The new year is a perfect time to begin practicing electrical safety.

Below is a simple checklist to conduct an inspection of your home this new year. How many of these have you completed recently or consistently? 

Upgrade Lighting to LEDs

Not only do LEDs use a fraction of the energy and have a far longer life than traditional lighting, they also produce less heat and reduce the risk of starting an electrical fire. So, they will save you on your energy bill over time and also make your home more safe. 

Reset GFCI Outlets Monthly

Set a calendar notification on your phone to remind you to reset your GFCI outlets at the beginning of each month. Simply press the test/reset button and make sure the outlets trip and reset correctly. If they are malfunctioning, contact a certified electrician to have them replaced.

Install Additional Outlets

It is easier than you might think to overload an outlet, and it is not safe to depend on extension cords for long periods of time. If you need additional outlets for your appliances, contact an electrician about having some installed before reaching for extension cords or adapters.

Replace/Upgrade Old Wiring

A number of homes in the United Power service territory were built many years ago. Consider having your home inspected to see if new wiring is recommended. Signs that your wiring may be faulty include flickering lights, sudden loss of power, or burning/sparks around your outlets. Wiring can break down over time due to construction damage, rodents, or even just old age.

Steps Toward Electrical Safety

Here are some further steps you can take to make sure your home is safe day-to-day. 

• Discard damaged or frayed electrical cords.
• Keep walkways clear of extension cords or other electrical power cables.
• Limit your outlets to a single high-wattage appliance at a time. 
• Make sure the bulbs in your lamps are consistent with the wattage recommendations.
• Only use appliances on level surfaces.

More information about home electrical safety.

United Power was focused on securing new power contracts this past year with the flexibility to meet its growing demand in advance of the upcoming exit from its current wholesale power provider — effective May 1, 2024. The cooperative’s leadership recognized the opportunity to stabilize rising wholesale power costs and ease its financial burden when it announced the exit in 2022 and began requesting power supply proposals from regional and national generators. In keeping with its established reputation as a forward-thinking, innovative electric utility, the co-op is partnering with nationally recognized industry leaders to reduce its carbon intensity through a carefully curated mix of generation resources, including natural gas and renewable options, and developing groundbreaking demand response systems that will cut costs when energy is most expensive. 

United Power had a stellar year in addition to the new power contracts, which included eclipsing a new milestone in residential rooftop solar installations. The coooperative also launched a website refresh with enhanced focus on member engagement and data-driven navigation updates, renewed the popular Member Choice Grant program, engaged with local communities in new ways, and debuted an all-new battery pilot program for members.

New Power Supply Contracts & Groundbreaking Innovation

United Power has the largest load among Colorado’s electric distribution cooperatives, which means it will require a diverse group of suppliers to meet its energy needs as it continues to grow.

The cooperative announced a power supply contract with Denver-based Guzman Energy in July — featuring fixed wholesale pricing and securing approximately one-third of its supply needs beginning in May 2024 — and a strategic relationship with Xcel Energy in September to explore opportunities for maximizing the value of their combined portfolios. Smaller contracts with OneEnergy and Whetstone Power will add approximately 40 megawatts (MW) of renewable resources to the co-op’s energy mix. 

Also announced this past year were two groundbreaking battery storage agreements with Ameresco and Whetstone Power. The cooperative will strategically install more than 100 MW of battery storage at substations located throughout its service territory to increase system resiliency and reliability, balance load, reduce costs, and more efficiently incorporate local renewables. 

“The use of batteries on our distribution network is essential to a resilient and responsive power system and we are excited to move ahead with one of the most aggressive plans for such a system,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power’s President and CEO.

Read more about United Power’s power supply.

Rooftop Solar Milestone

More United Power members are opting to generate power locally than ever before. Rooftop solar has quickly become the preferred solution for members who are looking to offset their energy usage with renewable options. 

The cooperative has a residential solar penetration of nearly 11%, which ranks among the highest representations for electric utilities of all sizes and more than double the national average. Last year, United Power became one of the first cooperatives to surpass 10,000 residential solar installations. Members have added nearly 6,500 rooftop solar systems to their homes since early 2020, more than doubling the total number of systems interconnected to the United Power grid. The combined generation potential of these systems is nearly 70 MW.

United Power is proud to support a robust solar community, and is committed to providing a member-friendly connection process, which has been recognized by the Colorado Solar and Storage Association. 
United Power also debuted an all-new member program for those interested in pairing their solar system with battery storage. Members interested in learning more about the cooperative’s solar interconnection process and the new battery pilot program can find more details under the My Energy tab at www.unitedpower.com.

Online Experience Improvements

United Power members may have noticed a new look and feel to the website and online account portal. The cooperative launched a refreshed website design in June, focused on helping members quickly navigate to their desired location in fewer clicks and finding information faster.

United Power also rolled out an update for its online account portal, SmartHub, to improve functionality and enhance user experience. Members may sign up for a free account at www.unitedpower.com/smarthub.

Giving Back to the Community

Concern for communities is a cooperative principle United Power values and takes seriously. That is why the cooperative renewed its Member Choice Grant program for a third year and distributed $12,000 to nonprofits nominated by its members. For updates about grants and 2024 nominations, visit Member Choice.

Additionally, the cooperative identified new ways to interact with its members and support local athletics and education through a Friday Night Lights check presentation in Brighton and honoring a lineman in Carbon Valley during the fall football season.

United Power is looking forward to celebrating its 85th anniversary and the change in power suppliers this year. Join us as we recognize how the cooperative has championed community growth, helped spur economic development, supported community engagement, and will continue being more than just your local electric utility now and into the future. Just as we have since 1938, United Power will continue to be “Here for Good” in the communities we serve.
 

Along with the honor of operating an electric cooperative on behalf of you, our members, comes the accountability of being prepared for the changing future in energy. Two recent, recurrent themes have emerged that emphasize the need for United Power to work diligently to make Our Cooperative Roadmap a reality.

The first is the need to continue investing in the grid, and the second is an ongoing concern that the need for capacity — the backbone of reliable power — is getting perilously close to a crisis. Both issues tend to focus on the problem. United Power is actively seeking solutions.

There has been a lot of talk recently about investing significant financial resources in the grid. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law include funding to target large-scale projects over the next decade. These investments are needed and welcomed, but the completion estimates are measured in years or even decades. Meeting the needs of a growing enterprise like United Power is at least four to five years away, even with aggressive siting and execution.

People tend to think of the grid as the large power lines that deliver electricity from power plants miles away. Much of the energy transition challenge is that a lot of low or non-carbon generation is located far from population centers. Coupled with permitting challenges, supply chain constraints, and a confusing financing model, large-scale projects just take time.

But the grid also includes distribution systems, operated by utilities like United Power. It is the main conduit to our members and requires as much — or more — investment as its larger cousins. Your Board of Directors has continuously supported budgets to upgrade and expand critical infrastructure, and these investments have paid off. United Power has one of the best distribution networks in the country, evidenced by high reliability numbers, rapid outage response, and data-driven system management.

A robust distribution grid is also critical to the second issue — the potential for seasonal power shortages.

The North American Reliability Corporation (NERC), responsible for assessing and enforcing reliability standards, recently found the country is at an elevated risk of having insufficient energy supplies to meet demand in extreme conditions. The reasons for this potential shortfall range from coal and nuclear plant closures and an expanded reliance on natural gas to the increased electrification of everything. 

“Extreme cold weather events can cause electricity demand to deviate significantly from historical forecasts. Electricity demand in winter is closely tied to outside temperature. As electric heat pumps and heating systems become more prevalent, their combined effect on system demand is even more pronounced,” NERC stated.

The industry has tried to slow the energy transition and continue operating money-losing coal plants instead of proposing solutions. And, importantly, there are solutions. This is where United Power’s strategy of hyper-localizing generation and storage comes into play. 

As we prepare for our upcoming power supply transition, United Power is adding significant amounts of battery storage, spread across our system. We are locating natural gas peaking units tied in to the distribution — versus transmission — networks and contracting with power supplies closer to the communities we serve. This reduces line losses, improves reliability, and keeps tax dollars local. We will couple this with efficiency programs, support any members who want to generate part of their own power through solar, and expand demand response options now that we will have a realistic peak window. 

Of course, we will continue to get power from generation plants and support efforts to build out the transmission grid as it will continue to have a role in a modern electric enterprise. But, we will focus on what we can do locally.

As always, please feel free to reach out with your questions, comments, or concerns. United Power welcomes the opportunity to meet with your community groups and discuss the cooperative’s response to the changing industry.