Four Board Seats Up for Election

Four positions on United Power’s eleven-member board are up for election at the 2020 Annual Meeting which is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at Riverdale Regional Park & Fairgrounds in Brighton. One seat in the East, West, South and Mountain districts will be up for a three-year term.

To be eligible to become or remain a director, a person must be a United Power member and receive electric service from United Power at the member’s primary residence in the district he or she represents. United Power’s bylaws provide in-depth information on director districts, qualifications, terms, elections, meetings and officers.

Each member’s district is printed on their United Power statement. Nominations by written petition must state nominee’s name and district, be signed by 15 or more United Power members, and be filed with the board no less than 60 days prior to the Annual Meeting.

The deadline for nominations by petition is 4 p.m. on Friday, February 14, 2020. Petitions are available at United Power’s headquarters office in Brighton at 500 Cooperative Way. Additional information can be obtained by calling United Power’s executive department at 303-659-0551 or by visiting our Annual Meeting page.

See attached flyer below for more information. 

2020 Annual Meeting & Director Election

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

4:30 p.m. | Registration Opens
6:30 p.m. | Balloting Closes & Meeting Begins

Riverdale Regional Park & Fairgrounds
9755 Henderson Road, Brighton, CO 80601

Balloting Deadlines

February 14, 2020 | Direction Nominations by Petition Deadline at 4 p.m.

April 13, 2020 | Mail-in Ballots must arrive at the P.O. Box by 6 a.m.

April 15, 2020 | Ballot Drop-Boxes at offices close at 2 p.m.

April 15, 2020 | Ballot Drop Box Open from 12-4 p.m. at the Riverdale Regional Park and Fairgrounds

Candidate Forums

Attend a Meet the Candidate Forum to learn more about each of the candidates vying to serve on the Board of Directors. The following events are free to members. Light refreshments will be served. RSVPs are not required.  

Thursday, March 19, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. 
Carbon Valley Service Center
9586 E I-25 Frontage Road, Longmont, CO 80504

Friday, March 20, 2020 | 7:30 a.m.
Coal Creek Canyon Community Center
3158 Highway 72, Golden, CO 80403

Monday, March 23, 2020 | 6:30 p.m.
Riverdale Regional Park
Rendezvous Room, located in Waymire Dome
9755 Henderson Road, Brighton, CO 80601

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 | 7:30 a.m.
Fort Lupton Recreation Center
Multi-Purpose Room 3
203 S. Harrison Ave, Fort Lupton, CO 80621

*Dates and locations may be subject to change. 

United Power, a member-owned electric cooperative serving Colorado’s northern front range, has been investigating its power supply options with Tri-State Generation & Transmission over the last several years, as is the fiduciary responsibility to its member-owners. As part of its investigation, United Power filed a request for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to exercise its authority to establish a just, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory exit charge from Tri-State Generation & Transmission. Tri-State is a cooperative generation and transmission association headquartered in Westminster, Colorado which provides wholesale power to 40 utilities across four states, including United Power.

“United Power members deserve clean, affordable energy and we have an obligation as a cooperative to look out for the financial interests of our member-owners. We have been working for the last few years on solutions with Tri-State that would allow the co-op the flexibility to add local resources, or purchase lower cost power from other sources,” said John Parker, Chief Executive Officer for United Power. “Conversations regarding our power agreement with Tri-State have stalled and the cooperative is seeking out all possible alternatives to build in rate reductions and offer more renewable options to our energy mix.”

Power purchase agreements with Tri-State limit the purchase of additional power by United Power to just five percent of total power requirements. United Power, along with several other cooperatives, championed a bylaw change that would allow Tri-State member cooperatives to enter into partial requirement contracts.  These new partial requirement contracts are an essential component of any successful plan to de-carbonize Colorado electricity generation consistent with Colorado state policy objectives by reducing United Power’s reliance on Tri-State’s high-priced, carbon-intensive power mix. Not only that, they would allow the cooperative to better meet demands for local renewable energy projects, and ultimately reduce costs for United Power members. Since the resolution was passed earlier this year, the two parties have been unable to come to agreements on proposed solutions, and recently Tri-State placed a moratorium on all partial power and buy-out conversations until mid-2020.

“By not allowing United Power to move forward in a timely manner to seek additional energy sources, Tri-State is effectively holding this cooperative and our members hostage,” said Parker. “We are seeking partial requirements and/or buy-out solutions that are in the financial interests of the Tri-State cooperative family, and mutually beneficial to the ratepayers we serve. A full disclosure of a fair and just exit package is the information United Power needs to evaluate and ultimately make effective choices for our members.”

Colorado’s Public Utilities Law gives the Commission broad jurisdiction over public utilities like Tri-State, thus United Power has asked for their intervention to obtain a fair exit price and pricing methodology from Tri-State.