Title
Local Food Banks Receive Member Choice Grants
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/MemberChoice.jpg?itok=xQRicKHr
Monday | May 11, 2020
Card Teaser
Nominations quickly began arriving, and it was clear members saw an immediate need to provide basic food supplies for their neighbors at this time.
United Power introduced its new Member Choice Grants program earlier this year, asking members to nominate a nonprofit organization in its service territory they would like to see the cooperative help support.
Within the service territory, several of these organizations exist to provide for the needs of individuals and families and bring value to the communities they serve. These grant nominations allow United Power to provide support for causes and organizations members truly care about.
Nominations quickly began arriving, and it was clear members saw an immediate need to provide basic food supplies for their neighbors at this time. United Power is happy to announce the two organizations receiving the first $1,000 Member Choice Grants from the first round of nominations for 2020.
Carbon Valley Help Center
The Carbon Valley Help Center exists to help with the immediate needs of residents in their area, including food assistance and financial support. The grant will be used to help provide for the needs of its food pantry during the pandemic.
Fort Lupton Food & Clothing Bank
The mission of the Fort Lupton Food and Clothing Bank is to provide life sustaining food and clothing to people in need in and around the Fort Lupton community. Each year, the organization provides assistance to nearly 9,000 individuals.
Nominations are now open for the second round of Member Choice Grants, which will be announced in the next United Newsline. To submit a nomination, fill out a Member Choice Grant application and provide a brief reason why you feel the organization should receive the grant.
Title
Looking for Kids to Help Spread Electrical Safety Messages
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/2018_02_14_KidsSpreadSafetyMessages.jpg?itok=bupRuTbS
Wednesday | February 14, 2018
Card Teaser
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.
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. Kids in grades kindergarten through fifth are invited to submit their creative ideas that incorporate electrical safety concepts or safety tips for the community.
Winning posters will be used in May to commemorate National Electrical Safety Month—an annual, nationwide campaign to raise awareness about electrical hazards. Six winning designs will be selected, one from each grade. Winning posters will be displayed throughout the United Power service territory—in print, online and on select bus benches. The winner from each grade will also be awarded a $50 cash prize.
The deadline for Electrical Safety Poster Contest entries is Wednesday, March 21, 2018. Posters must be submitted on the official coloring contest entry form, which is available at any United Power office, our website, and will be included in the February & March United Newsline, United Power’s monthly newsletter mailed directly to members. United Power employees will judge posters based on creativity and illustration of a key electrical safety concept. Winners will be announced by Friday, March 30, 2018.
Contest Details
Child must be a dependent of a United Power member.
Winners will receive $50 cash awards.
Six winners will be chosen. One from each grade K-5.
Winning posters will appear online, in print and on bus benches for the month May.
Entries must be submitted on the official contest entry form.
DEADLINE: MARCH 21, 2018
Electrical Safety Tips
Stay away from powerlines & electrical equipment.
Use care when plugging & unplugging.
Never mix electricity & water.
Never stick toys or other objects into electrical outlets.
Don’t overload outlets.
Ask an adult for help ‑ you can never be too safe!
Title
Maintaining A Standard
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/Mountains_Lines_1320x860.jpg?h=45932144&itok=eih0_DWa
Wednesday | November 26, 2025
Card Teaser
United Power consistently demonstrates excellence in system performance.
Reliability Outperforms National Averages Year-Over-Year
Members expect consistently reliable power from their electric utility. United Power has maintained a standard of excellence in system performance, delivering results that far exceed the national average year-over-year. The cooperative has continued to meet this standard while it navigated a power supply transition last year and is incorporating new, innovative projects that source and store power locally.
The cooperative’s exit from its wholesale power contract in May of 2024 meant bringing on new contracts from a mix of traditional and sustainable resources into the distribution system. Aside from celebrating United Power’s energy independence, the switch was successfully executed without any power disruptions, ensuring members can count on the cooperative to maintain its standards for reliability and resiliency across the distribution system.
United Power has collected 18 months of data since the transition, demonstrating consistent system reliability.
Measuring Reliability, By the Numbers
Electric utilities use a variety of key performance indicators to measure how effectively and efficiently their systems are operating. The most common indicator is known as the System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI. United Power also tracks the System Average Interruption Frequency Index, or SAIFI. These indicators are among the many used by utilities to analyze system performance and calculate outage expectations for an average member.
SAIDI is the measurement of cumulative outage time (in minutes) an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year. The national average across all electric utilities was 131 minutes in 2024 and nearly 240 minutes for cooperatives, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). United Power’s SAIDI score has stayed below 80 minutes each of the past three years and is just above 60 minutes through September of this year.
SAIFI measures the total number of outages an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year (frequency of outages experienced). United Power’s score of 0.90 in 2024 means the average meter experienced fewer than one outage throughout the year, again exceeding the national average across all electric utilities (1.07) and other cooperatives (1.61), per the EIA. Put another way, most United Power members were unlikely to experience more than one outage last year, and many did not experience an outage at all.
Another performance indicator used by utilities measures the system’s overall availability rate. The co-op’s three-year availability rate was between 98.8% and 99.9%.
“Our system’s performance is due to the great effort of our engineering and operations teams,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power’s President and CEO. “They are responsible for reviewing and interpreting data and developing strategies to improve the system. We are setting the standard for other utilities while meeting our members’ expectations.”
Building a Better System
United Power’s approach to maximizing system performance utilizes a comprehensive combination of design practices, proactive maintenance projects, and extensive integration of automated and smart field devices.
Outages are an intrinsic reality for electric utilities. United Power can mitigate them, but cannot guarantee they will not happen. Mitigation begins with building the system so that outages are recognized earlier, impact fewer members, and are restored quickly — and more importantly, safely. The cooperative designs the system with these steps in mind.
One of the ways this is accomplished is known as a “redundancy.” This essentially means that power can be rerouted from an alternate source to restore members during an outage while crews are investigating the cause or working on repairs. Most members are on a redundant system, which is part of why United Power’s average restoration times are also among the best in the country.
Another design strategy is “sectionalizing.” This means that when a fault results in an outage, depending on where it is located down the line, it may affect fewer members. Devices are installed in sections throughout the distribution system to limit outage impact.
United Power also deploys automated devices that collect system data. That information can help locate and clear faults to minimize outages and reduce restoration times or identify infrastructure that is not performing optimally and needs to be repaired. This data has been helpful in the cooperative’s maintenance plan, which proactively targets the worst-performing sections of the system to improve reliability and increase resiliency.
United Power outperforms other electric utilities across the various metrics used to evaluate system performance, but the cooperative regularly reviews emerging strategies and innovative technologies that can further improve reliability. Delivering safe and reliable power is the co-op’s core responsibility to members. You can be sure it is not taken lightly.
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 >
Title
May Message from Mark A. Gabriel
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message_85.jpg?h=45932144&itok=fpbFupeq
Thursday | May 1, 2025
Card Teaser
A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer.
Several years ago, while working for the federal government, I had the opportunity to spend time aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The captain explained that aircraft carriers are focused on being a “forward projection of force.” I enjoyed my time with the crew of 4,000 and the leadership command team as they went about the complex duties of operating the finest example of U.S. power in the middle of the ocean.
Part of my experience included a tailhook landing in a COD (carrier onboard delivery) plane that appears way too big to land on anything but a runway, as well as a catapult takeoff. When preparing for takeoff, there is a tremendous amount of noise, confusion, and turmoil. Once hooked onto the catapult, the noise cuts through your body and your vision blurs. The anticipation of the launch is an adrenaline rush. Then a strange thing happens; the noise disappears as the plane clears the runway, dips off the deck, and heads into the air. The flight at that point is quiet and smooth, heading toward its destination. There may be occasional turbulence, but flight plans are executed with great precision.
A year ago, there was a lot of noise as your cooperative awaited takeoff on the catapult to independence. Like the catapult takeoff, silence quickly replaced the noise. The co-op’s flight plan — also known as Our Cooperative Roadmap — is being executed with great precision. United Power is the forward projection of force, taking action to meet the needs today and in the future.
There are headwinds and tailwinds on the energy horizon. The West may find itself short of capacity, the critical back-up generation resource to ensure grid reliability. It, and specifically United Power, will also find it has plenty of energy thanks to more and more people adding their own generating resources, coupled with new solar and wind facilities. The headwinds and tailwinds mean there will be times of excess and inexpensive power and times when things are tight.
Electricity has never been more important to our homes, businesses, and communities. United Power, like many other utilities, is finding the need to balance each new opportunity with the realities of power supply. We have created the LIT process to work with potential large commercial and industrial members, which focuses on three key items: location, investment, and timing. The good news for United Power is our history of ensuring growth pays its own way. The better news is that companies want to be in your cooperative’s territory.
Part of United Power’s flight plan involves the strategy to hyper-localize generation and storage resources. This is one way we will maintain reliability, as well as add to the local tax base. We have added a new gas-fired power plant and 115 MW of battery storage located at substations across our system. The battery array is the largest in Colorado and most likely the West, allowing us to buy power when prices are low and use it when prices are high. As a matter of fact, this month marks the first time United Power actively managed the deployment of power from two of our battery systems to meet a contingency reserve need on the system. The batteries improve and support our grid and leverage the storage capacity for financial benefit.
Our flight plan also includes becoming a distribution system operator (DSO), which allows the management of systems in concert with each other and not just individual pieces. As on the aircraft carrier, everything will be coordinated to manage costs and keep the lights on. This means members can offer their self-generation or storage to United Power as an aggregator that gets sold back to the market. It also means the possibility of smoothing out demand through the system to lower overall costs and the better use of resources in a capacity constrained world.
For three days on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, I witnessed the tight coordination of people, safely navigating in open ocean while defending our nation. At United Power, I see the tight coordination of our tremendous staff, supported by the oversight of your Board who lead the cooperative. We have nailed the landing, cleared the takeoff, and are flying ahead. Full steam ahead.
Title
May Message from Mark A. Gabriel
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message_85.jpg?h=45932144&itok=fpbFupeq
Wednesday | May 1, 2024
Card Teaser
A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer.
There is never a good time to raise rates, but there is always a good reason. Raising rates ensures the financial stability of the utility, keeps borrowing costs low, and allows for continued investment in facilities. Sometimes there is a great reason to raise rates. For United Power, that great reason is freedom to do the right thing for our members and a restoration of local control.
More than 85 years ago, United Power’s founding board members decided electrification was in the best interest of their communities. Their goal required bold thinking and a bit of moxie. It took them two years to bring their idea of electrification to life but resulted in the lights going on for 110 homes and businesses in 1940. It introduced a vision for the future that is still being expanded today. The cooperative is now more than 100 times larger – far larger than those original founders could have ever imagined.
Two years ago, your intrepid Board of Directors began the initial steps to take our cooperative back, advocating for a new direction untethered to an organization that was not operating in our members’ best interests. The Board’s belief is bringing a new vision of the future, and we are expanding on that every day.
Operating as an independent entity allows United Power to manage its own destiny and focus on locally controlled generation and assets, while protecting members from costs that do not bring them value. Exiting our power contract prevents the cooperative from carrying a disproportionate burden of the supplier’s costs and investments and subsidizing others. Additionally, we want to incentivize generation and storage within our communities and increase reliability. Local generation contributes tax revenue that benefits our communities. Our new power supply will also immediately reduce our carbon intensity, helping us meet regulatory mandates.
The cost of this freedom is $627 million, broken down into an exit fee of roughly $450 million and a 40-year prepayment of approximately $180 million for the use of transmission facilities. This prepayment is a loan from United Power that will earn interest to the tune of more than $250 million, and it is for service that we would have needed to buy anyway. Most importantly, the cooperative will be free from debts and obligations over which we have no management or control.
The key question, of course, is what this exit will do to bills. There will be a small rate increase to pay for our freedom. Raising rates is never pleasant, and we understand this will be challenging for some. We are working on programs to minimize the impact, and we are committed to rate stabilization and potential answers for lowering them as we pay off our exit fees.
This resolution is really the end of the beginning for United Power’s exciting and bold vision for the future. This was outlined three years ago in Our Cooperative Roadmap, which envisioned a new set of power supplies, the move into power markets, increased levels of energy storage, and continuing our industry-leading innovation.
Innovation is not new at United Power. We were one of the first to have community solar, generate power from methane waste gas, and pioneer battery storage. Further, our rates and programs support members who add solar and storage, and electric vehicles are revolutionizing our backyard with more than 6,000 in our territory.
United Power received a grant to combine floating solar with storage in Fort Lupton to produce low-cost power and reduce water loss through evaporation. Golden Aluminum, one of the co-op’s largest industrial members, received $22.3 million to electrify their processes. And, we have been selected to apply for New ERA grant funding. If the application is successful, those funds will help stabilize and lower the cost of lower carbon resources.
Being an independent entity means we get to pick the right generating resources for our members, and help electrification efforts without constraints or paying for things that do not benefit the co-op.
There is a cost to our freedom, but operating independently is priceless. Bold thinking and a bit of moxie are making this happen. I am proud of the women and men of United Power. We are, and will remain, Here for Good.
Title
Local Food Banks Receive Member Choice Grants
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/MemberChoice.jpg?itok=xQRicKHr
Monday | May 11, 2020
Card Teaser
Nominations quickly began arriving, and it was clear members saw an immediate need to provide basic food supplies for their neighbors at this time.
United Power introduced its new Member Choice Grants program earlier this year, asking members to nominate a nonprofit organization in its service territory they would like to see the cooperative help support.
Within the service territory, several of these organizations exist to provide for the needs of individuals and families and bring value to the communities they serve. These grant nominations allow United Power to provide support for causes and organizations members truly care about.
Nominations quickly began arriving, and it was clear members saw an immediate need to provide basic food supplies for their neighbors at this time. United Power is happy to announce the two organizations receiving the first $1,000 Member Choice Grants from the first round of nominations for 2020.
Carbon Valley Help Center
The Carbon Valley Help Center exists to help with the immediate needs of residents in their area, including food assistance and financial support. The grant will be used to help provide for the needs of its food pantry during the pandemic.
Fort Lupton Food & Clothing Bank
The mission of the Fort Lupton Food and Clothing Bank is to provide life sustaining food and clothing to people in need in and around the Fort Lupton community. Each year, the organization provides assistance to nearly 9,000 individuals.
Nominations are now open for the second round of Member Choice Grants, which will be announced in the next United Newsline. To submit a nomination, fill out a Member Choice Grant application and provide a brief reason why you feel the organization should receive the grant.
Title
Looking for Kids to Help Spread Electrical Safety Messages
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/2018_02_14_KidsSpreadSafetyMessages.jpg?itok=bupRuTbS
Wednesday | February 14, 2018
Card Teaser
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.
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. Kids in grades kindergarten through fifth are invited to submit their creative ideas that incorporate electrical safety concepts or safety tips for the community.
Winning posters will be used in May to commemorate National Electrical Safety Month—an annual, nationwide campaign to raise awareness about electrical hazards. Six winning designs will be selected, one from each grade. Winning posters will be displayed throughout the United Power service territory—in print, online and on select bus benches. The winner from each grade will also be awarded a $50 cash prize.
The deadline for Electrical Safety Poster Contest entries is Wednesday, March 21, 2018. Posters must be submitted on the official coloring contest entry form, which is available at any United Power office, our website, and will be included in the February & March United Newsline, United Power’s monthly newsletter mailed directly to members. United Power employees will judge posters based on creativity and illustration of a key electrical safety concept. Winners will be announced by Friday, March 30, 2018.
Contest Details
Child must be a dependent of a United Power member.
Winners will receive $50 cash awards.
Six winners will be chosen. One from each grade K-5.
Winning posters will appear online, in print and on bus benches for the month May.
Entries must be submitted on the official contest entry form.
DEADLINE: MARCH 21, 2018
Electrical Safety Tips
Stay away from powerlines & electrical equipment.
Use care when plugging & unplugging.
Never mix electricity & water.
Never stick toys or other objects into electrical outlets.
Don’t overload outlets.
Ask an adult for help ‑ you can never be too safe!
Title
Maintaining A Standard
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/Mountains_Lines_1320x860.jpg?h=45932144&itok=eih0_DWa
Wednesday | November 26, 2025
Card Teaser
United Power consistently demonstrates excellence in system performance.
Reliability Outperforms National Averages Year-Over-Year
Members expect consistently reliable power from their electric utility. United Power has maintained a standard of excellence in system performance, delivering results that far exceed the national average year-over-year. The cooperative has continued to meet this standard while it navigated a power supply transition last year and is incorporating new, innovative projects that source and store power locally.
The cooperative’s exit from its wholesale power contract in May of 2024 meant bringing on new contracts from a mix of traditional and sustainable resources into the distribution system. Aside from celebrating United Power’s energy independence, the switch was successfully executed without any power disruptions, ensuring members can count on the cooperative to maintain its standards for reliability and resiliency across the distribution system.
United Power has collected 18 months of data since the transition, demonstrating consistent system reliability.
Measuring Reliability, By the Numbers
Electric utilities use a variety of key performance indicators to measure how effectively and efficiently their systems are operating. The most common indicator is known as the System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI. United Power also tracks the System Average Interruption Frequency Index, or SAIFI. These indicators are among the many used by utilities to analyze system performance and calculate outage expectations for an average member.
SAIDI is the measurement of cumulative outage time (in minutes) an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year. The national average across all electric utilities was 131 minutes in 2024 and nearly 240 minutes for cooperatives, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). United Power’s SAIDI score has stayed below 80 minutes each of the past three years and is just above 60 minutes through September of this year.
SAIFI measures the total number of outages an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year (frequency of outages experienced). United Power’s score of 0.90 in 2024 means the average meter experienced fewer than one outage throughout the year, again exceeding the national average across all electric utilities (1.07) and other cooperatives (1.61), per the EIA. Put another way, most United Power members were unlikely to experience more than one outage last year, and many did not experience an outage at all.
Another performance indicator used by utilities measures the system’s overall availability rate. The co-op’s three-year availability rate was between 98.8% and 99.9%.
“Our system’s performance is due to the great effort of our engineering and operations teams,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power’s President and CEO. “They are responsible for reviewing and interpreting data and developing strategies to improve the system. We are setting the standard for other utilities while meeting our members’ expectations.”
Building a Better System
United Power’s approach to maximizing system performance utilizes a comprehensive combination of design practices, proactive maintenance projects, and extensive integration of automated and smart field devices.
Outages are an intrinsic reality for electric utilities. United Power can mitigate them, but cannot guarantee they will not happen. Mitigation begins with building the system so that outages are recognized earlier, impact fewer members, and are restored quickly — and more importantly, safely. The cooperative designs the system with these steps in mind.
One of the ways this is accomplished is known as a “redundancy.” This essentially means that power can be rerouted from an alternate source to restore members during an outage while crews are investigating the cause or working on repairs. Most members are on a redundant system, which is part of why United Power’s average restoration times are also among the best in the country.
Another design strategy is “sectionalizing.” This means that when a fault results in an outage, depending on where it is located down the line, it may affect fewer members. Devices are installed in sections throughout the distribution system to limit outage impact.
United Power also deploys automated devices that collect system data. That information can help locate and clear faults to minimize outages and reduce restoration times or identify infrastructure that is not performing optimally and needs to be repaired. This data has been helpful in the cooperative’s maintenance plan, which proactively targets the worst-performing sections of the system to improve reliability and increase resiliency.
United Power outperforms other electric utilities across the various metrics used to evaluate system performance, but the cooperative regularly reviews emerging strategies and innovative technologies that can further improve reliability. Delivering safe and reliable power is the co-op’s core responsibility to members. You can be sure it is not taken lightly.
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 >
Title
May Message from Mark A. Gabriel
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message_85.jpg?h=45932144&itok=fpbFupeq
Thursday | May 1, 2025
Card Teaser
A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer.
Several years ago, while working for the federal government, I had the opportunity to spend time aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The captain explained that aircraft carriers are focused on being a “forward projection of force.” I enjoyed my time with the crew of 4,000 and the leadership command team as they went about the complex duties of operating the finest example of U.S. power in the middle of the ocean.
Part of my experience included a tailhook landing in a COD (carrier onboard delivery) plane that appears way too big to land on anything but a runway, as well as a catapult takeoff. When preparing for takeoff, there is a tremendous amount of noise, confusion, and turmoil. Once hooked onto the catapult, the noise cuts through your body and your vision blurs. The anticipation of the launch is an adrenaline rush. Then a strange thing happens; the noise disappears as the plane clears the runway, dips off the deck, and heads into the air. The flight at that point is quiet and smooth, heading toward its destination. There may be occasional turbulence, but flight plans are executed with great precision.
A year ago, there was a lot of noise as your cooperative awaited takeoff on the catapult to independence. Like the catapult takeoff, silence quickly replaced the noise. The co-op’s flight plan — also known as Our Cooperative Roadmap — is being executed with great precision. United Power is the forward projection of force, taking action to meet the needs today and in the future.
There are headwinds and tailwinds on the energy horizon. The West may find itself short of capacity, the critical back-up generation resource to ensure grid reliability. It, and specifically United Power, will also find it has plenty of energy thanks to more and more people adding their own generating resources, coupled with new solar and wind facilities. The headwinds and tailwinds mean there will be times of excess and inexpensive power and times when things are tight.
Electricity has never been more important to our homes, businesses, and communities. United Power, like many other utilities, is finding the need to balance each new opportunity with the realities of power supply. We have created the LIT process to work with potential large commercial and industrial members, which focuses on three key items: location, investment, and timing. The good news for United Power is our history of ensuring growth pays its own way. The better news is that companies want to be in your cooperative’s territory.
Part of United Power’s flight plan involves the strategy to hyper-localize generation and storage resources. This is one way we will maintain reliability, as well as add to the local tax base. We have added a new gas-fired power plant and 115 MW of battery storage located at substations across our system. The battery array is the largest in Colorado and most likely the West, allowing us to buy power when prices are low and use it when prices are high. As a matter of fact, this month marks the first time United Power actively managed the deployment of power from two of our battery systems to meet a contingency reserve need on the system. The batteries improve and support our grid and leverage the storage capacity for financial benefit.
Our flight plan also includes becoming a distribution system operator (DSO), which allows the management of systems in concert with each other and not just individual pieces. As on the aircraft carrier, everything will be coordinated to manage costs and keep the lights on. This means members can offer their self-generation or storage to United Power as an aggregator that gets sold back to the market. It also means the possibility of smoothing out demand through the system to lower overall costs and the better use of resources in a capacity constrained world.
For three days on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, I witnessed the tight coordination of people, safely navigating in open ocean while defending our nation. At United Power, I see the tight coordination of our tremendous staff, supported by the oversight of your Board who lead the cooperative. We have nailed the landing, cleared the takeoff, and are flying ahead. Full steam ahead.
Title
May Message from Mark A. Gabriel
/sites/default/files/styles/news_card_553x430_/public/news/CEO_Message_85.jpg?h=45932144&itok=fpbFupeq
Wednesday | May 1, 2024
Card Teaser
A message to United Power members from the cooperative's President & Chief Executive Officer.
There is never a good time to raise rates, but there is always a good reason. Raising rates ensures the financial stability of the utility, keeps borrowing costs low, and allows for continued investment in facilities. Sometimes there is a great reason to raise rates. For United Power, that great reason is freedom to do the right thing for our members and a restoration of local control.
More than 85 years ago, United Power’s founding board members decided electrification was in the best interest of their communities. Their goal required bold thinking and a bit of moxie. It took them two years to bring their idea of electrification to life but resulted in the lights going on for 110 homes and businesses in 1940. It introduced a vision for the future that is still being expanded today. The cooperative is now more than 100 times larger – far larger than those original founders could have ever imagined.
Two years ago, your intrepid Board of Directors began the initial steps to take our cooperative back, advocating for a new direction untethered to an organization that was not operating in our members’ best interests. The Board’s belief is bringing a new vision of the future, and we are expanding on that every day.
Operating as an independent entity allows United Power to manage its own destiny and focus on locally controlled generation and assets, while protecting members from costs that do not bring them value. Exiting our power contract prevents the cooperative from carrying a disproportionate burden of the supplier’s costs and investments and subsidizing others. Additionally, we want to incentivize generation and storage within our communities and increase reliability. Local generation contributes tax revenue that benefits our communities. Our new power supply will also immediately reduce our carbon intensity, helping us meet regulatory mandates.
The cost of this freedom is $627 million, broken down into an exit fee of roughly $450 million and a 40-year prepayment of approximately $180 million for the use of transmission facilities. This prepayment is a loan from United Power that will earn interest to the tune of more than $250 million, and it is for service that we would have needed to buy anyway. Most importantly, the cooperative will be free from debts and obligations over which we have no management or control.
The key question, of course, is what this exit will do to bills. There will be a small rate increase to pay for our freedom. Raising rates is never pleasant, and we understand this will be challenging for some. We are working on programs to minimize the impact, and we are committed to rate stabilization and potential answers for lowering them as we pay off our exit fees.
This resolution is really the end of the beginning for United Power’s exciting and bold vision for the future. This was outlined three years ago in Our Cooperative Roadmap, which envisioned a new set of power supplies, the move into power markets, increased levels of energy storage, and continuing our industry-leading innovation.
Innovation is not new at United Power. We were one of the first to have community solar, generate power from methane waste gas, and pioneer battery storage. Further, our rates and programs support members who add solar and storage, and electric vehicles are revolutionizing our backyard with more than 6,000 in our territory.
United Power received a grant to combine floating solar with storage in Fort Lupton to produce low-cost power and reduce water loss through evaporation. Golden Aluminum, one of the co-op’s largest industrial members, received $22.3 million to electrify their processes. And, we have been selected to apply for New ERA grant funding. If the application is successful, those funds will help stabilize and lower the cost of lower carbon resources.
Being an independent entity means we get to pick the right generating resources for our members, and help electrification efforts without constraints or paying for things that do not benefit the co-op.
There is a cost to our freedom, but operating independently is priceless. Bold thinking and a bit of moxie are making this happen. I am proud of the women and men of United Power. We are, and will remain, Here for Good.
