YVEA Awarded EV Charging Station Grant

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The Colorado Energy Office recently awarded Yampa Valley Electric Association a Charge Ahead Colorado grant to fund two electric vehicle charging stations. The charging stations will be installed at YVEA’s offices in Craig and Steamboat Springs and will be for employee and public use.

The Steamboat Springs-based electric cooperative received a total of $18,000 for the charging stations. The chargers are expected to be installed and ready for use by July. Though not the first Colorado electric cooperative to receive a Charge Ahead Colorado grant, this innovative program will bring the first publicly accessible charging station to Moffat County.

Charge Ahead Colorado’s program aims to promote EV charger installations across the state with the hopes to accelerate the more widespread adoption of EVs.

White River Electric Solar Farm Wins Award

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White River Electric Association’s Piceance Creek Solar Farm was named the 2019 Colorado Utility Scale Project of the Year. The award, given by the Colorado Solar and Storage Association, was presented to representatives from the electric cooperative at a ceremony on Sunday, April 14 in Aurora, Colorado.

The 5.4-megawatt solar power system sits on 40 acres where 16,959 solar modular panels are mounted on a single axis tracking system. They generate enough energy to power over 830 single-family homes each year. Beginning in May, WREA consumer-members will have the opportunity to lease power from the solar farm.

White River Electric Association is located in Meeker in northwestern Colorado. It serves more than 3,300 meters.

Winds of Change for K.C. Electric Association

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Three proposed wind farms are being developed in K.C. Electric’s service territory on Colorado’s eastern plains. The Cheyenne Ridge wind farm is a 500-megawatt wind farm developed by TradeWind Energy. NextEra Energy will develop a 300-megawatt wind farm south of Flagler called Bronco Plains. And EDP Renewables is developing a 104-megawatt wind farm south of Seibert called Crossing Trails.

The Crossing Trails project is located in both Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties and will require a new 230,000-volt transmission line to be built from the wind farm to an existing transmission line. K.C. Electric’s power provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, has signed a power purchase agreement with EDP to purchase the output of the Crossing Trails wind farm, some of which will be distributed into K.C.’s system. It is expected that these three wind farms will be in service by the end of 2020.