Dept. of Energy exec hired as new United Power CEO

BRIGHTON — United Power Inc. announced Thursday the hiring of Mark Gabriel as the utility’s new CEO, effective March 15. 

Gabriel has spent the last eight years as the CEO of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Western Area Power Administration.

“Mark Gabriel is the right choice to guide United Power into a more successful future. He will help create a lasting impact on our members,” UP board board chairwoman Ursula Morgan said in a prepared statement. 

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Gabriel takes over for chief operating officer and acting CEO Bryant Robbins, who has been serving in both roles since the retirement of John Parker last year.

He steps into the role at a tumultuous time for UP, as the utility last month filed suit against the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in the newest salvo in its ongoing battle to break its power-supply agreement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc.

The suit is the newest front in United’s long and bitter efforts to exit from Tri-State before its contract ends in 2050. United has asked repeatedly for a buyout quote from its contract with Tri-State so it can source more of its power independently and from renewable sources at a faster rate than what Tri-State plans.

The co-op claims in the suit that without the PUC’s intervention, Tri-State would quote an exit fee ranging north of $3 billion and far beyond what United believes would be a fair charge.

United has claimed for months and in multiple lawsuits that Tri-State misled it about the reasoning behind allowing non-electric cooperative groups to join the power wholesaler as part of a scheme to use legal and bureaucratic roadblocks to delay giving United an exit fee quote, a process it calls “jurisdictional gamesmanship.”

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