Between chicken sandwiches and coffee mugs came big news

United Power CEO shares news of $262 million from Washington but also predictions about what to expect and what not. That includes the Colorado Rockies playing in the World Series.

by Allen Best

Annual meetings of electrical cooperatives are commonly used by managers and their directors to report whatever good news was available, share some broad sense of the path forward — and distribute some goodies of various sorts.

The annual meeting Wednesday evening of United Power, Colorado’s second largest cooperative, with 118,000 members, was no exception.

At this meeting, Mark A. Gabriel, the CEO, had a little bigger news than normal to share: the arrival of the first payments in a $262 million award from the federal government’s NewERA Program. It was the first in the nation, he said.

The award to United Power was part of a $4.37 billion package approved by Congress as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2023. The money has been slow to be released by the Trump administration. Several other electrical cooperatives in Colorado promised money have yet to see it.

But first came the goodies at United’s annual meeting, sandwiches from Chick-fil-A this year, along with potato chips and cookies. This was at the Adams County fairgrounds along the South Platte River near Brighton, home base for United Power.

The service territory for the cooperative sprawls from Coal Creek Canyon in the foothills west of Arvada and Broomfield to the oil and gas fields near Greeley. The service territory on the south borders DIA.

Conversing with another visitor, I joked that I liked going to meetings of electrical cooperatives because they made me feel young.

As the sun sagged in the sky, 500 or so of us made our way to the meeting venue at Riverdale Regional Park for the program, some grateful to be ferried in golf carts.

Coops vary in their DNA but generally veer conservative. The agenda of the United Power annual meeting played to that script. There was a prayer, a bringing forward of the U.S. and Colorado flags, the pledge of allegiance, and a rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Cooperatives are governed by boards of directors, and election results are commonly announced at the meetings. In this case, two of the four districts this year had contests. If visibility of coops has risen in recent years, they still rarely garner much participation. Coop elections are strictly non-partisan. No D’s, no R’s.

As for Gabriel’s remarks, the penultimate component of the program, he recalled that he had arrived at United in 2021, just as the covid lockdown was ending. He had previously overseen operations of the Western Area Power Administration.

“United Power continues to be one of the fastest-growing and most forward-leaning utilities in the United States,” he said, before outlining changes in technology.

“As a tech nerd, as I have been for nearly 30 years, I applaud these innovations,” he said. “The reality is, only a handful of these technologies will be ready in the next few years, when we at United Power need them the most. Many of these are decades away,” he said. “We can’t wait, and we’re not waiting.”

The demand for electricity by United Power members has doubled in the last 10 years, Gabriel reported, and United expects demand to double again by 2031 and triple by 2036. It has several data centers with plans in its service territory, a giant facility planned by BNSF Rail and, of course, massive amounts of new housing. Too, United expects the number of EVs among its members to double in coming years.

In this growth, United is far different from many electrical cooperatives in Colorado, especially those located in distinctly rural areas, where need for new electricity has grown only modestly, if at all.

For many decades, United Power got its electricity from— and was a member of — Tri-State Generation and Transmission. United bristled at the restrictions imposed by Tri-State. It needed more independence to define its own future. It left Tri-State in May 2024.

Even before leaving Tri-State, Gabriel and directors had begun charting a new path that they call hyper-localization. That includes a variety of solar plants within the service territory, some battery storage and, beginning last August, the 162-megawatt natural gas Peak Power Plant north of Keenesburg.

This gas plant, said Gabriel, keeps United from having to buy access to transmission. ”This is local energy and this is what we need to pursue energy independence, energy security and energy dominance.”

What can be expected

More is coming, in 2027, including a giant solar and battery project (200 megawatts of each) near Brush, 90 miles east of Brighton.

Gabriel identified other new twists in the United story that will be coming:

“A distributed energy resource management system that’s going to provide more options to our members.”
A local transmission expansion with other cooperatives and municipal entities.
Continued addition of solar rooftops. United already leads the state, and Gabriel said the per capita number of solar rooftops will be more than “just about anywhere else in the country.”
Oil and gas members will continue to electrify their operations “because electrification provides significant environmental, operational and economic benefits.”

What we won’t see — soon

Gabriel also quoted the Nobel laureate in physics Niels Bohr in listing what he expects NOT to see in the near future. “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future,” Bohr had said.

No nuclear plants ready for prime time,” as much as we would like to see that happen in terms of low-cost green energy.
New interstate transmission lines will be built in Colorado, but none of the critical lines that are most needed.
Long duration energy storage will be in the pilot stage but not ready for mass production.
Natural gas will not be banned.
And, drawing a laugh, Gabriel predicted that Rockies will not be in the World Series.

Then there was the $262 million in NewERA funding. Colorado scored big in the awards announced by then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.in December 2024. Trump had been elected president, and there were questions about how much his administration would try to cut back funds.

The short story is that the money seems to be coming, if at a leisurely pace. In an interview, Gabriel said he and his staff had worked hard with the Rural Utility Services, the federal agency responsible for disbursement of the funds. In the public meeting, he credited the additional work of Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and Representatives Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert. Approval of an implementation plan was required.

Gabriel also suggested that the idea of NewERA funding had begun in the offices of United Power five years ago.

Seven power projects were included in United’s grant application. Four them are already operating, and the next three will come online by the end of 2029. The goal is to reduce electrical rates. United has had two sharp increases of about 10% in the last few years.

Other Colorado cooperatives

Sedalia-based CORE Electric Cooperative, Colorado’s largest in terms of membership (although second to United in electrical demand), was promised $225 million to procure “550 megawatts of wind and solar energy and 100 megawatts of battery energy storage for rural communities,” according to the December 2024 press release.

CORE, like United, serves a diversity of areas from the mountain foothills to the Great Plains. That includes Castle Rock, Parker and even some of Aurora.

Steamboat Springs-based Yampa Valley Electric Association was to get nearly $40 million for procurement of up to 150 megawatts of solar energy and 75 megawatts of battery storage.

Representatives of both coops said they have not crossed the finish line.

“CORE is continuing to work with federal partners to advance the grant by adjusting projects as needed based on the current environment,” reported CORE’s Amber King.

Three other electrical cooperatives— Fruita-based Grand Valley Electric, Granby-based Mountain Parks Electric, and Ridgway-based San Miguel Power Association — were to get other loans and grants.

Tri-State expects $2 billion in loans

Duane Highley, the chief executive of Tri-State, said his organization remains in line to receive up to $2 billion in low-interest loans under the NewERA program.

“That would transform our balance sheet,” said Highley at the Tri-State annual meeting last week. “We still expect that to happen.”

Highley also disclosed that an administrator, whom he did not identify, had told him about the possibility of expanded federal funding. Unlike these existing grants, which are built around renewables, the new grants would be focused on nuclear and geothermal.

“He says we might be able to expect up to 50% funding from the federal government, which would take it from a very expensive, non-attainable resource to something that would be much more affordable. We could share that risk together,” he said.

And the end of the United meeting

As for United’s meeting this week, there were the chicken sandwiches at the outset and also all manner of door prizes, including tickets to an Avalanche game and I don’t know what all.

After the prizes donated by various vendors like Guzman Energy had been distributed, nearly all the people left, leaving just a few stragglers to ask hard questions about peak demand, compensation to ratepayers for days when wind events have caused power outages, and other semi-wonky matters.

Then, on their way out the door, everybody got a high-tech coffee mug and a packet of coffee grounds.