VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 41
WEEK OF OCTOBER 12, 2023
More Colorado energy co-ops line up to leave Xcel
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Farm access to federal money Caraveo’s aim BY MATT WHITTAKER SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
power supplier offers us,” Gabriel said. While there are some similarities, the co-ops leaving Tri-State and those exiting Xcel Energy each have their own particular reasons. For the cooperatives departing Xcel Energy — the CORE Electric Cooperative, Grand Valley Power and the Yampa Valley Electric Association — the focus is on the volatility of the Xcel’s wholesale prices and questions of management. CORE, formerly known as the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, is the largest cooperative in Colorado with 175,000 members — customers actually own the co-op — across 11 Front Range counties. The cooperative has had a longstanding relationship with Xcel Energy, including owning a quarter of the Comanche 3 power plant.
Not long after Yadira Caraveo became the inaugural U.S. representative for Colorado’s new 8th Congressional District, the Democrat from Thornton found herself talking with farmers about climate change. Some were Republicans in Weld and Adams counties who wouldn’t use the words “climate change,” but they told Caraveo they are noticing things are different, like shifts in harvest and planting times. They’re also tracking weather patterns they haven’t seen before and it’s only heightened their concerns about conserving water. “To them it’s not news,” Caraveo said. “It’s something that they’ve understood for some time. They don’t necessarily want to call it climate change. We’re talking about the same thing.” Semantics aside, Caraveo has found some common ground with the agricultural community, particularly smaller farming operations that are looking to participate in federal programs to improve their conservation practices, but find it tough to get their foot in the door. So, Caraveo has set her sights on changes to the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program. It is known as EQIP, and it pays farmers to use conservation methods that, in part, promote healthy soil, which is improves crop yields and, therefore, farmers’ profits, as well as the environment. That’s because healthier soil contains more organic matter and can store more carbon dioxide, helping to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gasses that are linked to climate
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BUSINESS LOCAL
Mark Gabriel, President and CEO of United Power, at the company’s headquarters on Sept. 20, 2023 in Brighton. United Power is a member-owned distribution electric cooperative serving more than 106,000 meters across six counties along the north-central PHOTO BY KATHRYN SCOTT / SPECIAL TO THE COLORADO SUN Front Range. BY MARK JAFFE THE COLORADO SUN
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LOCAL OBITUARIES LEGALS CLASSIFIED
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
United Power CEO Mark Gabriel has a countdown clock on his desk ticking off the time until his electric cooperative leaves the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association on May 1, 2024. Brighton-based United Power, however, isn’t the only Colorado coop counting days. Seven other rural electrical cooperatives have left, are looking to leave, or renegotiate contracts with their traditional power suppliers — Tri-State and Xcel Energy — enabling them to venture into a wholesale market filled with merchant power suppliers and brokers. “The energy transition is now providing lower-cost, local and cleaner power solutions that offer a number of advantages to co-ops,” said Seth Feaster, an analyst with the non-
profit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “It allows co-ops to forge their own energy independence.” Traditionally, rural cooperatives bought their electricity from generation and transmission associations, created to serve the co-ops, or an investor-owned utility, like Xcel Energy. Those purchases account for 60% to 70% of the cooperatives’ budgets. “I think that the old world is just fading away,” Gabriel said, undermined by cheap wind and solar electricity and technological innovations, such as battery storage. “Those companies that don’t march with time, end up just relics on the side of the road.” United Power is striking deals with multiple suppliers for power and storage. “It’s important to recognize we really will have a much more balanced portfolio than our current
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