Meeting Highlights include Director Election Results, Local Energy Strategy, and New ERA Grant Update

Brighton, CO – United Power members gathered for the cooperative’s 2026 Annual Meeting on April 15 at Riverdale Regional Park in Brighton. More than 500 members and guests attended this year’s meeting, which included a video presentation highlighting the co-op’s 2025 accomplishments, the annual financial report, and a special presentation from United Power President and CEO Mark A. Gabriel. Results of the Director Election were announced at the conclusion of the meeting.

Voting in the Director Election was conducted via mail-in and electronic balloting. More than 4,700 member ballots were cast in the election. Running unopposed, South District incumbent Steven Douglas and Mountain District incumbent Tamra K. Waltemath retained their seats with each candidate receiving 3,996 votes. North District incumbent Virginia A. “Ginny” Buczek retained her seat with 2,496 votes. Her opponent Phil Tiffany received 2,110 votes. A new director was seated in the Central District, where Lisa Hough received 2,733 votes to challenger Vicki Erickson’s 1,797 votes. A ballot item that asked members to update the cooperative’s Articles of Incorporation to ensure they are clear, transparent, and consistent with current state laws and the cooperative’s bylaws passed with 3,635 votes in favor.

Board Chair Stephen Whiteside and Mark A. Gabriel shared a video presentation at the meeting highlighting how The Power of Local impacts the cooperative’s decision making and its everyday operations. Two years ago, United Power exited its wholesale power contract beginning its journey to energy independence. The cooperative is actively implementing its local energy strategy, known as hyper-localization, where more power is generated closer to the cooperative’s footprint and the communities it serves. Local energy also bypasses costly and congested transmission. The strategy was highlighted last year in the second version of the co-op’s long-term action plan, Our Cooperative Roadmap.

“One of the most significant changes in United Power’s history was our transition to a new power supply strategy,” said Whiteside. “When we moved away from a single provider, we gained more local control over where our power comes from and our ability to plan for the future.”

“Independence provides the cooperative with flexibility to build a diverse energy portfolio that protects reliability and helps keep long-term costs in check,” Gabriel said. “This includes an expanding catalog of hyper-local projects, like Mountain Peak Power, which was energized last summer in partnership with Kindle Energy. This innovative natural gas peaking plant is strategically located outside Keenesburg adjacent to gas lines, making it an efficient and cost-effective resource during peak demand events. Also, because it is located near a substation connected to a battery energy storage system (BESS), it will reduce costs and increase reliability for our members.”

United Power became one of the first electric utilities in the country to install BESS adjacent to its substations in 2024. These projects support the cooperative’s hyper-local strategy and are critical for resource adequacy, energy arbitrage opportunities, and shaving peak demand.

“Resources like Mountain Peak Power help ensure we have power when we need it most, right here at home,” said Whiteside. “It is another example of how investing locally supports reliability, flexibility, and long-term value for our members.”

Gabriel also shared that this week, the cooperative was the first awardee of 15 to receive funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program. The grant award, which will be paid over the next 10 to 15 years, will be used to help mitigate the rising cost of power and to stabilize rates for cooperative members. In September 2025, the agency confirmed that United Power was the first cooperative to submit and receive approval of its Community Benefit Plan Implementation Report, which was a condition to receive funds related to four energy projects already operating for the benefit of United Power communities. Three additional New ERA projects will come online by the end of 2029. United Power will continue investing in local communities, and fulfilling the cooperative’s commitments to advancing workforce development, access to energy assistance, support for rural farmers, and more.

“Simply put, just as we are securing new energy resources to support our membership, we are also ensuring the benefits of New ERA related to new jobs, reliability, and long-term affordability stay in our communities,” said Whiteside.

“We would like to extend a special thank you to our Congressional delegation, including Reps. Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert as well as Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, for their support,” said Gabriel. “It has been a long road, but our amazing staff and the USDA staff made it happen.”

Paige Wagner-Maul, United Power Board Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, presented the cooperative’s financial report. Fiscal year 2025 marked United Power’s first full year of independence from its former single-source wholesale power contract, highlighted by the cooperative’s “A - Stable” investor-grade credit rating being affirmed by Fitch Ratings. This rating indicates a strong and stable financial outlook and will allow the co-op to pursue favorable interest rates as it continues to invest in its system.

Although margins decreased slightly, energy sales and revenue increased last year. Notably, certain aspects of the co-op’s May 2024 wholesale power contract buyout were determined in the co-op’s favor in 2025, lowering wholesale power costs and offsetting costs to the membership.

Gabriel concluded the meeting with a presentation about how United Power is taking a proactive position in an industry undergoing dramatic change. New technologies and projects are under development that promise to deliver answers to existing challenges, but the cooperative cannot afford to wait. Gabriel highlighted some expectations about United Power’s future energy demands and its strategy to address them.

“The future will not be defined by those who sit idle,” Gabriel said. “It will be shaped by those who act. United Power is doing exactly that. Planning strategically, investing wisely, and keeping our members at the center of every decision.”

Videos and information presented at the 2026 Annual Meeting, including the cooperative’s 2025 Annual Report, are available at www.unitedpower.com.

About United Power

United Power is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative, delivering electricity to homes, farms, and businesses throughout Colorado’s northern front range. The cooperative is one of the fastest-growing electric co-ops in the nation, serving nearly 118,000 meters. Its 900-square mile service territory extends from the mountains of Coal Creek and Golden Gate Canyon, along the I-25 corridor and Carbon Valley region, to the farmlands of Brighton, Hudson, and Keenesburg. For more information about United Power, visit www.unitedpower.com or follow the cooperative on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

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VIDEO: 2025 United Power Chair & CEO Report 
TRANSCRIPT: United Power President & CEO Mark A. Gabriel’s 2026 Annual Meeting presentation 

Legal Notice of Annual Meeting of Members and 
Proposed Amendments to the Articles of Incorporation

The Annual Meeting of Members of UNITED POWER, INC. will be held Wednesday, April 15, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. at the Waymire Dome at Riverdale Regional Park, located at 9755 Henderson Road in Brighton, Colorado. Members can attend in-person or via livestream. Instructions for participating in the meeting virtually can be found on the cooperative’s website at www.unitedpower.com.

The meeting will be for the purposes of electing directors, deciding on proposed amendments to the cooperative’s Articles of Incorporation brought forward by the board of directors, considering and approving reports for the prior fiscal year, and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting.

This year there are elections in the following districts: North, Central, South, and Mountain for four-year terms. The candidates nominated by petition are Phil Tiffany and Virginia A. “Ginny” Buczek (incumbent) in the North District; Vicki Erickson and Lisa Hough in the Central District; Steven Douglas (Incumbent) in the South District; and Tamra K Waltemath (Incumbent) in the Mountain District.  All Members are entitled to cast a vote for the director positions of every district, regardless of the district where the Member is domiciled. 

Articles of Incorporation — Proposed Amendments

The Board of Directors recommends that the membership approve proposed amendments to the Articles of Incorporation. If approved, the organization will file these amendments with the State.

These amendments will ensure the cooperative’s Articles of Incorporation are clear, transparent, and consistent with current state laws and the cooperative’s Bylaws. Specifically, the proposed amendments remove duplicative and outdated language and add clarifying language where necessary. The proposed amendments to the Articles of Incorporation were placed in full in the Brighton Standard Blade on March 19, 2026 and are available to view on the cooperative’s website at https://www.unitedpower.com.

Additional information including how to cast a ballot and deadlines for voting can be found at https://www.unitedpower.com/annual-meeting.

UNITED POWER, INC. By: /s/Beth Martin, Secretary
 

The Roman poet Virgil famously wrote, “time flies, never to be recalled.” But I am not so sure. We can look back and see the road United Power has traveled, even before my arrival five years ago.

When I joined the cooperative in March of 2021, it was a very different time in many ways. Society was in the throes of a global pandemic and the economy was stalled due to uncertainty. And yet, the co-op was seeing some of the same conditions present today — continued growth in members and load, more variety in generation, more residential solar on homes, more electric vehicles on the roads, and the need for highly reliable electric service.

The need for electricity was never greater than when we were all working from home instead of the office. United Power, a summer peaking utility, hit a peak of 520 megawatts (MW) in 2021 and a winter peak just below 400 MW. Last July, we set a peak of 680 MW. Even a warm winter day can now exceed 420 MW. 

Our business model has also changed drastically. We had a single power supplier, and indirectly a single transmission provider, before our wholesale power supply contract exit in May 2024. Now we have 27 different power suppliers and three transmission providers. And critically, as required by Colorado law, we have dramatically reduced our carbon output with a blend of hydropower, renewable energy, battery storage, and natural gas.

The number of members we serve is increasing, too. We had not yet hit 100,000 meters when I joined the cooperative, but as of this January we now have more than 117,000. United Power is serving a variety of residential, commercial, and industrial members, as well as oil and gas sites, all of which are growing in number and load. We are looking forward to BNSF Railway and Bandimere Speedway moving into our territory and, like many cooperatives across the country, are preparing for the coming of data centers. We have also added millions of square feet of warehousing and other industrial infrastructure.

United Power is not growing in a vacuum. The rules under which we operate are changing. Discussions about bringing a regional transmission organization (RTO), commonly referred to as a market, to Colorado began in 2021. Now, this has become a reality. The cooperative will join the market in April. Participation in the RTO will not only help the 350,000 people we serve, but will also help nearly 2 million Coloradoans meet the state’s growing energy needs. It is critical that the legislation requiring all utilities to participate in the market by 2030 is enforced so that all residents receive the benefits. 

We have moved forward with creative and valuable technologies in the last five years, and we are acting on the vision outlined in Our Cooperative Roadmap, now on version 2.0. United Power is a leader in distributed battery storage and opened Mountain Peak Power, a new natural gas plant in Keenesburg, in a record 20 months. We added a new outage management system and are preparing to deploy a new distributed energy resource management system that is a key pillar to making our distribution system operator vision a reality.

These advances are built on a foundation the cooperative has established over its 87-year history of pioneering innovation and never being afraid to push the organization to new heights — advancing its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system in the late 1980s, energizing the state’s first community solar project in 2009, becoming an early adopter of advanced meters in 2012, and connecting its first battery storage system in 2018.

The Power of Local is at the heart of our actions here at United Power as we localize power options, system controls, and work with our communities.

I am proud of the team I lead at United Power. They have made these accomplishments and many others possible with the support of your tremendous Board of Directors, that has not shied away from the challenge of positioning United Power for today and the future.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments.