Bringing You Power

United Power is an electric distributor, meaning that we purchase electricity from a supplier and bring it to our customers. We purchase our electricity from Tri-State Generation & Transmission. Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, owned by its members, is the wholesale supplier of electricity to United Power and 44 other customer-owned member companies in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska.

Like most major power suppliers, Tri-State focuses on both the present and future power requirements of its members that ultimately deliver the power to end-use consumers. The association has added new energy resources to its generation mix in the past few years and more are being planned or currently under construction.

Tri-State's portfolio of electric energy is derived from coal, natural gas and oil-fired and combustion turbine generation facilities located throughout its four-state member service territory. The G&T owns and operates plants in Colorado and New Mexico, and it receives a share of power from plants in Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. Tri-State also purchases federal hydropower from the Western Area Power Administration, and energy from other renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydropower and biomass.

How Power Gets to You

As soon as electricity is generated, it is delivered to your home or business through a transmission and distribution process.

Transmission involves routing extremely high voltage electricity from a power plant or generating source onto a network of high-voltage transmission lines. Transmission lines then carry electricity over long distances to a distribution substation where the voltage is lowered. Once the electricity is at a lower voltage, the electricity is transferred onto United Power's network of distribution lines to be delivered to your home.

Restoring Power After an Outage

Outages occur for a number of reasons. In the event of a large or wide-spread outage, we prioritize repairs in order to get the largest number of customers back on first.

• First, we check and repair any damaged transmission lines. These are the lines that bring power to our electrical system.
• Equipment or line repairs at substations will be done next in order to transfer power from transmission lines to the main distribution lines throughout our service area.
• After the substations are repaired, we turn our attention to our main distribution lines, and then to tap lines, which carry electricity from the main distribution lines to smaller groups of customers.
• Once all distribution lines and tap lines are repaired, we begin working on service lines, which typically bring power to only one or two locations.

What should you do in the event of a power outage?

• Verify that your entire house is out and that you haven't just blown a fuse or tripped a circuit breaker.
• If you have determined that your home is out of power, turn off or unplug any appliances you were using when the power went out. Leave just one light on so you know when power is restored.
• If your power remains out for longer than a few minutes, or to report an electrical safety hazard, please call United Power's Outage Line at 303-637-1350. Your call will be answered by a Customer Service Representative or our Automated Outage Reporting System. If the outage is widespread, our phone lines may be busy when you call. Please be patient, your call is very important to us.
• When you call to report an outage, please provide as many details as possible. If you heard a loud bang, or your power is out but your neighbors have power, let us know. This will help us determine any unknown problems on our system.

Restoring power during inclement weather or after a large accident can be a big job. United Power maintains a 24-hour, 365 day-a-year dispatch center so if you should lose power, be assured we're working as quickly as possible to get your lights back on.