United Power dispatched a crew to Granby to assist Mountain Parks Electric in its rebuild effort after receiving significant damage from the East Troublesome Fire in late October. United Power joins four other cooperatives as part of the rebuild in coordination with the Colorado Rural Electric Association.

The East Troublesome Fire erupted north of Granby and west of Grand Lake on October 14. Fueled by strong winds and beetle kill, the fire quickly turned into a blaze that consumed more than 100,000 acres overnight. As a result of the fire and winds, Mountain Parks Electric, the cooperative serving residents in the area, reported nearly 500 damaged or destroyed poles, not including damage to other critical infrastructure, miles of line and meters.

Mechanics crews at United Power helped put together a fleet including many essential pieces of equipment to make the rebuild as quick and safe as possible. Crews are expected to spend the next two weeks helping rebuild the most critical elements of Mountain Parks’ infrastructure.

Other cooperatives assisting in the rebuild are Gunnison County Electric, Highline Electric, Southeast Colorado Power and White River Electric. Cooperatives work together to strengthen one another and more effectively serve our members.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission, United Power’s power supplier, announced a plan to reduce rates by 8% over the next three years, as well as allow for partial requirements contracts with certain requirements.  The improvements are part of the power supplier’s goals to meet the guidelines of their Responsible Energy Plan.  United Power’s interim CEO, Bryant Robbins issued the following statement in response to the components of the proposed plan:

“United Power is very supportive of Tri-State’s efforts to lower rates. We think this is a great step in the right direction for the future of Tri-State and congratulate their efforts in trying to make this happen. Unfortunately for United Power, we serve an area in which our competitors’ rates are as much 25% to 35% less than ours. We are going to need much more than the proposed 8% reduction in Wholesale Power to be competitive,” stated interim CEO, Bryant Robbins.

“Based upon our preliminary analysis, we don’t think the Partial Requirements/added flexibility has a positive impact on our needs. The approved plan is not what we proposed a couple of years ago and just doesn’t appear to viable to United Power and its membership,” added Robbins. “However, we hope it does meet the needs of the other [Tri-State] cooperatives.”

“United Power will continue to pursue a just, reasonable, and non-discriminatory exit charge,” Robbins concluded. “Once received, our Board can then determine the appropriate direction and future of our Power Supply that is in the best interest of our membership. We also remain available to Tri-State for discussions to potentially resolve the issues.”

United Power is continuing to work on this. Read more on our Power Supply page.