2020 Youth Leadership Applications Available at Year’s End

As your cooperative we believe in contributing to the well-being of the communities that make up who we are, including building up tomorrow’s leaders in those communities. Each summer, United Power selects local youth from within our service territory to represent the cooperative for a week in the mountains of northwest Colorado at the Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp or an all-expense-paid trip to Washington D.C. for the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. 

Applications will be available on our Youth Trips page at the end of the year. .

CYLC: Camp, Cabins & Cooperatives

The Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp isn’t a camp in the traditional sense. There are no tents, no campfires, no s’mores. Business begins as soon as the buses and vans roll in to deposit campers from their respective cooperatives. Campers establish and manage their own cooperative for the week, including election of a Board of Directors and holding regular meetings for “members.” In between, days are filled with cooperative-focused activities, leadership training and collaborative group projects. 

However, being part of a cooperative isn’t all business all the time. Whether it was building camaraderie while rafting down the Colorado River or enjoying the majestic Fish Creek Falls, campers had ample opportunity to build friendships and have fun. 

This summer, three area youth represented United Power at camp: Xavier Galyardt, Mead High School; Audrey Thompson, Prospect Ridge Academy; and Karlen Ruybal, Ft. Lupton High School.

Youth Tour: Colorado Youth Visit Capitol Hill

The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour has been a proud tradition among cooperatives since 1957 when Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s annual meeting, suggested sending youth to the capitol to see “what the flag stands for and represents.”

Local electric cooperatives throughout the country sponsor approximately 1,500 high school students from small towns and cities for and incredible week in the nation’s capital with the objective of providing an educational experience for young people on the organization and operation of a cooperative. 

Each day of the Youth Tour is packed full of memorable moments for youth from across the country. Between meeting with elected officials, learning the value of the cooperatives they represent and developing leadership skills, students are able to spend time touring some of Washington D.C.’s landmarks and memorials. 

Each year, United Power selects three ambitious high school students to attend Youth Tour: Catera Gagna, Brighton High School; Brooklyn Stubby, Mapleton Early College; and Bethany Flanagan, Weld Central High School.

Meet Your 2020 Camp Ambassador: Xavier “X” Galyardt

Xavier, who goes by “X,” was a United Power representative at the 2019 Cooperative Youth Leadership Camp. Each year at CYLC, youth campaign throughout the week and are elected  by their peers to return to camp the following year as an ambassador. 

What did you enjoy most about camp?

Although the activities were fantastic – rafting, learning, dancing, adventuring – they are trivial in comparison to the friends I acquired. They are easily what I enjoyed most. The hardest part of camp was leaving them behind.

How did it prepare you for being a leader in your school and community?

The camp was incredible at presenting leadership ideas and displaying leadership ideals. These ideas reignited my passion for leadership and demonstrated the true influence of leaders. I have adopted a new philosophy on leading, and can’t wait to see how it plays out.

What does it mean to be elected a 2020 camp ambassador?

Being elected ambassador is a tremendous honor. To become a camp ambassador one must go through two stages of speeches and voting. After all that, my peers selected me because they trust me to represent them next year.

Why should others high school students attend camp in 2020?

For every reason someone could choose not to attend camp, I could list two reasons to come. For one, it’s a vacation away from normal life. You’ll also meet some of the most compassionate people you may ever now. There is no downside.

Brighton, Colo. — United Power has been named as one of a select group of utilities that connected the most energy storage capacity to the grid in 2018, earning it a spot on the annual Top 10 utility industry list compiled by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA).

In survey results released August 6, United Power ranked No. 10 on the utility energy storage list for Annual Megawatt-hours with 18.2 megawatt-hours (MWh) in interconnected capacity in 2018.

United Power was the only Colorado utility to be listed in the top ten and is among the smallest of the utilities to make the list. The survey ranked battery storage initiatives from a mix of investor-owned, municipal and cooperative utility systems – including some of the largest energy companies in the country. United Power is a member-owned electric cooperative serving just over 92,000 meters and is currently operating two Tesla battery storage systems—one of which is the largest battery storage system in Colorado.

“Being recognized in the top 10 with some of the largest utilities across the country is an honor and a testament to the innovation that our board and staff are working hard to achieve. We want to ensure that the latest emerging energy technologies are powering our members into the future,” said John Parker, United Power’s Chief Executive Officer. “Despite being one of the smaller utilities on this list, we continue to be leaders in energy innovation in Colorado, among cooperatives, and when measured against some of the largest investor-owned utilities across the country.”

The 12th Annual Utility Market Survey collected figures from over 500 utilities across the country. The full Top 10 listings are available online.

“The utilities in the Top 10 are truly spearheading the progress we’ve seen in the electric sector this past year,” said Julia Hamm, SEPA’s President and CEO. “It goes beyond just energy storage - they are implementing replicable business models and paving the way to a clean and modern energy future, something that won’t be possible without utilities’ leadership and cooperation.”

To learn more about the Energy Storage Top 10 Rankings, please contact Jordan Nachbar, JNachbar@sepapower.org or 202-559-2034

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United Power is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative serving more than 92,000 homes and businesses along Colorado’s northern front range. To learn more about United Power, visit www.unitedpower.com or follow the cooperative on Twitter or Facebook.

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is dedicated to helping electric power stakeholders address the most pressing issues they encounter as they pursue the transition to a clean and modern electric future and a carbon-free energy system by 2050. We are a trusted partner providing education, research, standards, and collaboration to help utilities, electric customers, and other industry players across four pathways: Transportation Electrification, Grid Integration, Regulatory Innovation and Utility Business Models. Through educational activities, working groups, peer-to-peer engagements and advisory services, SEPA convenes interested parties to facilitate information exchange and knowledge transfer to offer the highest value for our members and partner organizations. For more information, visit www.sepapower.org.

Follow SEPA on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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.”

Your air conditioner is probably one of the most demand intensive appliances in your home. This means members will begin to see their demand charge rise to include this additional appliance as the summer heat arrives. There is good news if you like keeping your home cool, though. When United Power instituted the demand charge, there was a corresponding REDUCTION in the cost of energy. Since you use a lot of energy to keep your home cool, you will probably see very little change from prior summers in your average bill. 

When United Power moved to a demand rate we uncoupled costs that had previously been blended into the rate. This new structure gives you more control over your electric costs, by allowing you to avoid stacking appliance use. It also reduced the cost you pay for the actual energy you use.  

The change is helping to make sure you pay a more accurate portion of your costs for the distribution system that brings power to your home. 

Demand is the total of all electric appliances that are running at one time. United Power bases their demand charge on your highest demand in a 15-minute period throughout the month. In the summer this is going to happen when you run your air conditioner, and perhaps an additional appliance like your washer or oven.  For example, a 24,000 BTU air conditioner creates a demand of about 3.8 kW, which translates to a demand charge of $3.80 plus the demand of any other appliances running at the same time.

United Power made sure that our members can access the information they need to better understand their power consumption.  All United Power members can look at their power consumption and see when you reach your peak demand via the Power Portal. If you need help accessing the Power Portal give Member Services a call at 303-637-1300. Remember that our website, www.unitedpower.com, has lots of great information about how you can reduce demand and how demand billing works.