United Power board retains incumbents, plans cooperative’s future

BRIGHTON — The incumbents on United Power’s board of directors are safe after election results were revealed at the energy cooperative’s annual meeting. The utility also discussed a planned change in its wholesale power supplier and celebrated reaching a milestone of 100,000 meters in July.

The cooperative introduced electronic voting for its members to vote on candidates for the board of directors. While the south district’s Keith Alquist and board chair and west district representative Ursula J. Morgan ran unopposed, Elizabeth Martin faced two challengers to represent the utility’s east district.

Martin received 2,728 votes, 196 more than her next closest challenger Steve Douglas. Naptali Lucks came in third, with 700 votes.

The board of directors also presented findings from the cooperative’s annual report for 2021, which included an increase over 2020 in patronage capital, up 5.2% from $224 million to $236 million. Net margins were down 4% from 2020, at $18.8 million from $19.6 million.

The annual meeting was also a chance to discuss United Power’s plans to separate from its wholesaler, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, by January of 2024. United Power pointed to high wholesaler costs and a requirement to purchase 95% of energy used from Tri-State as reasons for the departure.

On March 30, the Colorado Sun reported that Tri-State’s proposed $1.6 billion exit fee was 10 times too high, according to an economist with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

In a letter to cooperative members included in United Power’s annual report, president and CEO Mark Gabriel said the move would allow energy costs for consumers to be reduced.

“Wholesale power remains our single largest expense and reducing this cost means we can provide both lower rates and enhanced services to our members,” Gabriel said in the statement.

At its own annual meeting in Westminster April 6, Tri-State announced it had reduced energy rates by 4% over 2021. The cooperative also intends to source 50% of the electricity it provides from renewable sources by 2024.

The United Power annual meeting was also a celebration of milestones passed by the cooperative. In July, the power provider reached 100,000 meters, only the second utility in Colorado and 31st in the nation to cross that threshold. 

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