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. 

October is nationally recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to increase awareness and rally people to help fund research to find a cure for the disease.

This October, United Power joined the ongoing battle to find a cure through an employee-led effort to support colleagues, raise funds and create awareness. The idea began to spread after co-op linemen asked permission to wear pink hard hats throughout the month, and evolved into a company-wide engagement effort.

“It’s exciting that this movement began internally by our linemen,” said Community Outreach Specialist Julie Stewart. “It’s even more exciting to see the support from the rest of our employees. As a co-op, caring for our communities is a core part of who we are, and I think this demonstrates how much they care.”

The cooperative issued linemen pink hard hats to wear on the job throughout the month of October, and employees received pink “United for the Cure” shirts. Employees were encouraged to wear their shirts every Thursday during the month. To raise funds for breast cancer treatment and support, internal departments donated themed silent auction baskets. The silent auction raised $5,000. The check was presented to the Platte Valley Medical Center Foundation at an employee meeting in November.

“The employee engagement and support we witnessed was more than we could have hoped for,” said Member Engagement Officer Meghan Dewey. “This was a heartwarming suggestion from employees, who all helped contribute in a big way.”

Breast cancer impacts hundreds of thousands of families every year. This year alone, approximately 270,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the United States, not including non-invasive forms. It is the most common form of cancer diagnosed in women aside from skin cancer.

You can continue to help the fight locally by donating to the PVMC Foundation, which supports critical patient programs at Platte Valley Medical Center.

United Power has payment kiosks at our Brighton, Coal Creek and Carbon Valley office locations. These easy-to-use and hassle-free kiosks accept cash, credit card or check payments. Cash and credit card payments made using a kiosk are applied to your account immediately, and accounts subject to disconnection are restored immediately upon payment.

To make a payment at one of these kiosks, bring your United Power account number and a form of payment. 

Set Up Your Fast Pass for Quick Access

To make your transactions faster, there is an option to set up a “Fast Pass,” which will be prompted once you complete a successful transaction. You’ll create a 4-digit PIN and receive a printed barcode.

The next time you visit a United Power payment kiosk, select “Fast Pass” and quickly find your account with the barcode/PIN or the phone number you used when setting up your Fast Pass.

Please be careful to enter the correct phone and account numbers when making a payment because your Fast Pass will reflect these numbers exactly as you input them.

The United Power board of directors proposed a modest increase in residential rates at their November 8th regulatory meeting. The rate increase will vary from 1.5–2% for residential members. Members on the standard residential rate will see a 1.5% rate increase beginning with their January 1st usage, which amounts to an average increase of $1.58 per month. Members on the residential time-of-day rate and irrigation rate will see a 2% increase – an average monthly increase of $3.23 per month. 

An additional time-of-day rate was added in response to concerns raised by members utilizing the time-of-day rate. The additional time-of-day rate gives members who utilize specialized equipment and shift their consumption to off-peak periods another rate option. (See Rates Chart attachment below)

“As we move forward with the rate changes, it’s important that we listen to our members, and our newest rate is a response to their concerns,” stated Dean Hubbock, Director of Power Supply and Rates. “The new rates should have a minimal impact on members, and we now have several rates that members can consider when determining the best rate for their lifestyle.”

Last year, United Power instituted a new rate structure that allowed the cooperative to more fairly bill members for not only the power they use, but also for their impact on the electrical system delivering power. The new rate structure charges for energy and demand, breaking apart two costs that had been previously blended together. The new structure even allows members to have more control over the components of their bill that raise their costs. For example, in the residential rate, the demand charge increased by 50¢ per kW, while the energy charge drops from 10.15¢ per kWh to 9.95¢ per kWh.

“We understand that everyone has a different way they use power in their home, and by expanding our rate offerings, members can select a rate that best fits their usage patterns,” stated Hubbock.

In addition to the changes to the residential rates, the board proposed a couple additional changes. Irrigation rates will see a 2% monthly increase for 2020 – an increase of about $1.79 per month. Small and large commercial customers and large industrial primary customers will see an overall 2% monthly decrease in 2020. 

“The small reduction for commercial customers was warranted according to our most recent cost-of-service study,” stated Hubbock. “We will be conducting another full study in 2020, and that will help us continue to refine the rates we charge members in different rate classes.”

The new rates will go into effect for usage beginning January 1, 2020, so members will not see the increase on their bills until their February billing. Members can learn more about how to control their demand and lower their overall electric costs by visiting the Understanding Demand page. There are many helpful resources and videos to help you understand how the two components of your power are billed and how to control these costs.

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.