Legal Notice of Attempt to Settle 
Unclaimed Capital Credit Retirements

Commencing on October 31, 2024, and continuing through April 30, 2025, UNITED POWER, INC. (hereafter “United Power” or “the cooperative”), will make a final attempt to pay the unclaimed retirements of capital credits to its former members who were served by the cooperative prior to and through December 31, 2020. This notice does not apply to current United Power members. Representatives for the estates of deceased former members may also apply for unclaimed retired capital credits on behalf of the former member. Former members, or their representatives, who may be eligible to receive these unclaimed retired capital credits can access a list of eligible accounts at the cooperative’s website at www.unitedpower.com, or in person at United Power’s headquarters office located at 500 Cooperative Way in Brighton, Colorado.

Former members or their representatives who may be eligible to receive a payment of unclaimed retired capital credits must complete and submit an Unclaimed Retired Capital Credits Refund Request form (available at www.unitedpower.com) and verify all necessary information to ensure their eligibility for payment. A copy of the Unclaimed Retired Capital Credits Refund Request form may also be requested by emailing capitalcredits@unitedpower.com or by calling United Power’s Member Services line at 303-637-1300.

Submitting an Unclaimed Retired Capital Credits Refund Request form does not guarantee a disbursement will be made; proper documentation and valid proof of membership during the applicable time period is required. No refund checks will be issued for unclaimed retirement amounts below $5.00. Unclaimed retired capital credit refunds can be donated to the United Power Round Up Foundation, which provides assistance to community organizations within the cooperative's service territory. After the notification period closes on April 30, 2025, all unclaimed retired capital credits for the applicable time period will be considered an assignment and contribution of capital to United Power.

Additional questions about this notice and unclaimed retired capital credit refunds should be directed to United Power Member Services at 303-637-1300 or by email to capitalcredits@unitedpower.com.

UNITED POWER, INC.
By: /s/Mark A. Gabriel
President & CEO

United Power is pleased to announce the hiring of Susan Aldridge as the cooperative’s Director of Government Relations and Deputy General Counsel.

“Given her extensive background in land development and energy concerns, Susan will be a strong addition to our team,” stated Robin Z. Meidhof, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer. “She brings a unique blend of experience and legal expertise that will help us as we work with our legislators locally and nationally to address key issues impacting United Power’s efforts to hyper-localize and meet the state’s clean energy mandates while ensuring we can serve our members reliable energy at affordable rates.”

Aldridge holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arizona State University and a Juris Doctor and Masters in Public Administration from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota. Most recently, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel for a local reclamation/construction company whose primary customers are oil and gas, solar, and various land development businesses. Her work history includes both private practice and in-house counsel roles in addition to handling regulatory and external affairs in the oil and gas industry, focusing on land use regulation, local government permitting, compliance, stakeholder relations, and social investment. She is an avid champion of children, serving as a board member for the Two Angels Foundation, whose mission is increasing recreational opportunities for children with physical disabilities and served several years on the board of Tennyson Center for Children.

“United Power has built a leadership team that complements the goals of the cooperative,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power CEO and President. “Our focus on what our members need is paramount, and listening to our local leaders and community partners is key to the cooperative’s continued success. Susan is a talented addition to our team and will help strengthen our advocacy efforts at the statehouse and beyond.”

Funds will facilitate significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions

United Power is pleased to announce that it is a finalist for the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Utilities Service. The New ERA investment will be used to offset the cost of United Power’s transition to a strategic portfolio of clean energy that includes power purchase agreements that will provide more than 760 megawatts of renewable resources to its members by 2030. 

Last fall, cooperatives across the nation submitted hundreds of proposals for a portion of the $9.7 billion in New ERA Program funds earmarked for projects that reduce overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through the cooperatives’ voluntary transformation of rural electric systems in a way that promotes resiliency and reliability of rural electric systems and affordability for their members. 

“We are honored to be named a finalist for such a historic grant from the USDA,” said Mark A. Gabriel, President and CEO of United Power. “The New ERA Program represents the first significant funding opportunity of this generation. It will help finance the energy sector’s move to a future with cleaner power generation resources. The timing of this grant award offers an ideal opportunity for United Power and our members, as we continue our transition to an independent electric distribution cooperative, which began May 1 when we exited our former wholesale power provider.”

United Power left its long-standing wholesale power contract in May in order to create a cleaner, more flexible power portfolio for cooperative members. Utilizing multiple power purchase agreements, the cooperative curated a portfolio of solar, hydropower, and wind generation projects estimated to reduce GHG emissions by 2.1 million tons annually. Seven of the cooperative’s projects were submitted for consideration by the USDA with a request for grant funding that will offset 25% of the cost of these power purchase agreements for zero-emissions and renewable energy resources. 

“These funds are the perfect complement to the strategies United Power adopted to advance our clean energy journey,” said Gabriel. “Earlier this year, we deployed multiple battery energy storage systems on the United Power distribution grid, allowing us to provide redundancy on our system while stabilizing power costs. Adding more renewable energy resources to our mix will continue to build on this pioneering vision.”

United Power, which serves more than 112,000 meters on Colorado’s northern front range, sought more flexibility in its power supply mix and an ability to work more closely with local members interested in generating their own power. The cooperative is already an industry leader for its significant penetration of rooftop solar – approximately 12,000 United Power members have adopted this technology. The cooperative is also an active advocate for hyper-localized generation resources necessary for its transition to the distribution system operator model. 

Colorado’s climate action plan is also driving change statewide, challenging numerous sectors to aggressively tackle GHG emissions. The state is calling for utilities, like United Power, to submit clean energy plans that demonstrate a reduction in GHG emissions by 80% from 2005 levels and end the reliance on coal-fired power generation by 2030. 

“United Power is not the typical electric distribution cooperative,” said Ursula J. Morgan, United Power Board Chair. “Our service territory is experiencing incredible growth, new businesses are looking for ways to partner with us to provide cleaner power, and our local governance structure allows us to be nimble and responsive to meet our members’ needs. Cooperatives transformed the way of life in rural America when they stretched power lines across the country nearly 100 years ago, and today we are transforming our power supply by implementing the decarbonization efforts as laid out in Our Cooperative Roadmap. The New ERA investment will have an immediate positive impact on these efforts while helping to stabilize rates in future years for all United Power members.”

Fall is rapidly upon us, and we have successfully managed our first summer as an independent electric cooperative. It has been a hot summer and despite naysayers, the amazingly dedicated women and men of United Power have led us through this significant transition.

United Power’s loads continue to grow. Combining new sources of power and innovative technology, we have managed the system in a new and exciting way. As of May 1, we immediately reduced our carbon intensity by 26%, all while setting new peak loads, month over month. Our investment in nearly 80 MW of battery energy storage systems paid for itself just two weeks after the official ribbon cutting in July. On Aug. 2, we hit an all-time historical peak of nearly 650 MW. The true load had we not deployed battery storage — and initiated demand response — would have been 719 MW! This is up from the 2023 peak of 634 MW. The batteries meant we were able to buy lower cost and lower carbon power at night and use it during peak hours from 4–8 p.m. instead of purchasing expensive fossil fuel alternatives.

There is tremendous value in having a diverse portfolio of generation and large-scale storage resources. As United Power members, you do not have to wait until the end of the decade for the energy transition, as other cooperatives are doing. We are living it now with a wide range of power suppliers — 26 at last count — bringing a lower carbon and more flexible energy supply. Hydropower, wind, solar, storage, and gas allow us to have a balanced energy portfolio.

An increasing number of our members are adding solar, storage, and electric vehicles to their lives, and we support these efforts, happily providing critical analytical tools to make sure these decisions are being made with the best and most neutral information possible. United Power fully supports an “all of the above” strategy whether we provide the resource or not. One of United Power’s critical goals, as outlined in Our Cooperative Roadmap, is to continually optimize our electric system enabling all technologies to operate seamlessly.  For help in these and other energy savings opportunities, click here.

In addition to the change in power suppliers, United Power is adding intelligence to how we operate and monitor the grid through advanced systems, including:

• A new outage management system, giving us visibility and insight into our operations,
• Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI),
• Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), the system our operators use to monitor real time performance,
• and a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS).

These tools are all part of our drive to become a Distribution System Operator as we prepare for the evolving energy enterprise. In recognition of our commitment to innovation, knowledge sharing, and moving the industry forward, United Power was just honored with the Survalent Industry Innovation Award.

I am particularly excited about several developments that support our members and critical community resources thanks to the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act and Empower Rural America (New ERA) Program.

• United Power has been awarded $700,000 to place batteries in four fire stations across the service territory to improve reliability.
• We will receive $6.4 million to supply Fort Lupton’s Water Treatment Facility with floating solar and storage.
• Golden Aluminum is receiving $22.5 million to convert some of their equipment from natural gas to electric power.

We are also in the final stages of seeking a large New ERA grant that can help in our transition to lower carbon resources.

All of these exciting changes happen thanks to the dedication of our employees and support from your Board of Directors. As always, I welcome your questions, comments and concerns.
 

Weeks–Long Initiative Brought Power to More Than 150 Families

“It is indescribably upsetting that anyone in this day and age should not have access to electricity.” 

Apprentice Lineworker Isaiah Segoviano is one of two United Power employees who spent a week in July working in the grueling Arizona heat helping build the infrastructure necessary to supply hundreds of Navajo families with the life-changing resource of electricity. The mutual aid initiative, called Light Up Navajo, is aimed at connecting the people of the Navajo Nation to power, and is made possible by the cooperative efforts of more than 250 volunteers from 48 utilities across 16 states. 

The Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized Native American reservation in the United States, occupying an area greater than 27,000 square miles across parts of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Many of its residents are currently living without electricity because large land parcels, passed through several generations of Navajo tribal families, are in isolated locations that are often difficult and cost-prohibitive to serve.

Electric cooperatives uniquely understand the struggle for electrification. Before the Rural Electrification Act was passed in 1936, larger electric utilities ignored requests from American families living by the light of kerosene lamps in sparsely populated rural areas. Cooperatives were formed to power these rural areas, and while power was flowing to more than 90% of farms by the early 1950s, the Navajo Nation did not reap the same benefits. It would have to wait until 1959 before the Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority (NTUA) was founded. At the time of its creation, the NTUA was only a small water utility operating out of New Mexico. It has grown into the largest multi-utility owned and operated by an American Indian tribe but has had to play catch up to provide electrification for its vast territory. 

The NTUA has conducted an ambitious years–long effort to provide electricity to nearly 7,800 homes within the territory, but more than 13,000 still remain without access. The Light Up Navajo initiative was launched in 2018 in coordination with the American Public Power Association to address the great needs of families living in the Navajo Nation. United Power’s Segoviano and Logan Steele, Troubleshooter, joined the initiative’s fifth project phase. 

“We were working 12-hour shifts in 100-degree weather to set poles and string lights,” said Segoviano. “But at the end of the day, the people were so grateful, and it was heartwarming to witness families receive power for the first time in their lives.”

United Power sent two trucks and additional electrical equipment with Segoviano and Steele who helped set approximately 70 poles and string miles of line over six days in July. During the project’s 13-week window from mid-April to July, crews strung a total of 50 miles of line and provided power to 150 homes despite difficult terrain and extreme temperatures.

Light Up Navajo’s first phase was able to plant more than 3,400 poles and string nearly 60 miles of line to provide power to 233 homes in 2019. Subsequent phases and mutual aid programs have connected nearly 500 additional homes. NTUA has since been able to provide an additional 2,500 homes with electricity.

“The workers with NTUA expressed their gratitude to us for offering our availability to help with this project,” said Segoviano. “They said that we are their forever brothers.”

Electric cooperatives were established more than 85 years ago to bring electricity to unserved communities like those in the Navajo Nation. United Power has a long history of supporting projects designed to deliver power to difficult locations or remote communities, both locally and internationally. The cooperative sent a representative to help power mountain villages in Guatemala in 2018 and 2019. Everyone should have access to electricity and the life-changing opportunities it provides, and these projects demonstrate a tangible commitment to the co-op principles upon which United Power was founded.

United Power is pleased to announce the hiring of Jenna Hirsch to the newly created position of Vice President of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Risk.

“Jenna is an exciting hire for the cooperative,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power President and CEO. “Her background in the electric industry is extensive, and the cooperative’s ongoing focus on the safety of both our employees and the public warrants strong leadership in this area.”

Hirsch holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology from Metropolitan State University of Denver and a Master of Science in Health and Safety from the University of Denver. Most recently, she served as the Director of Safety and Loss Control for the Colorado Rural Electric Association, providing support and oversight of safety programs for rural electric cooperatives across the state. Her diverse work history includes safety work with the electric generation and transmission industry and in the oil and gas sector.

“United Power’s focus on safety underpins every initiative of the cooperative,” said Gabriel. “The importance of our safety culture is outlined in detail in both our guiding document, Our Cooperative Roadmap, and in the cooperative’s Social Responsibility Report. Any conversation we have at United Power – with leadership, among employees, or with our board – is built on this overarching concept of ‘safety first.’ I am confident that Jenna will bring the innovation and careful oversight we need to this critical aspect of our industry.”