Another Colorado Co-op Receives EV Charging Grant

Meeker-based electric cooperative White River Electric Association joins other Colorado electric cooperatives as a recipient of a Charge Ahead Colorado grant from the Colorado Energy Office. The grant awarded to WREA will help fund two electric vehicle charging stations.

Both a level II and level III charger will be installed in the town of Meeker and will be the first electric car charging units in the county. The EV market is growing in the northwestern part of the state, and WREA wants to be prepared to support its local community, consumer-members and area travelers.

WREA has not decided the charging station fee schedule yet, but the two units will be have a base fee plus a per-kilowatt-hour fee. The units will be installed and operational by mid-summer 2019.

 

 

United Power Celebrates 10 Years of Community Solar

United Power commissioned the first community solar program in the country 10 years ago this month. Located on United Power’s property in Brighton, consumer-members lease the panels for a 25-year period and receive credit for all the power generated by their panel. The program is sold out.

The Colorado Governor’s Energy Office provided seed money to help United Power develop the project. The solar farm was energized on May 15, 2009, and officially launched on May 27, 2009. A second module was added in August 2010.

The innovative Sol Partners Cooperative Solar Farm made solar technology more accessible to United Power consumer-members and is a model that has been replicated among utilities across Colorado and the country.

 

Poudre Valley REA Creates A Buzz at Solar Farm

The Environmental Science Class from Resurrection Christian School spent an afternoon with Fort Collins-based Poudre Valley REA and CSU Extension to plant pollinator-friendly seeds at the Coyote Ridge Community Solar Farm. Through this innovative use of solar farm land, the project will benefit nearby agriculture, contribute to the preservation efforts of pollinating species (birds, bees, etc.) and improve the beauty of the site.

Colorado Springs Co-op Works With Military

The United States Department of Defense is a large energy consumer worldwide and the single largest energy consumer in the nation. Over 80 electric cooperatives in 35 states across the nation work closely with the military, providing electricity services and partnering on innovative projects.

Limon-based Mountain View Electric Association, Inc., makes that list by providing electricity to Schriever Air Force Base in El Paso County, about 10 miles from Colorado Spring. The base includes 242 homes in the Tierra Vista community. Working with the military and its consumer-members offers MVEA opportunities to support the DoD and local communities.

Energy Savings for Schools Program

By Katie Kershman

Delivering cost-effective energy services and advancing innovative energy solutions is the mission of the Colorado Energy Office. This year, in support of its mission, CEO piloted a new approach for the Energy Savings for Schools (ESS) program. Up to four school districts will work with CEO’s program administrator, Brendle Group, to identify energy and water goals, educate staff and students on conservation and plan and implement projects that result in increased awareness and cost savings.

Through the program, districts receive:
• Free technical support, and energy and water conservation coaching
• Free customized Resource Management Plan that sets goals, identifies priorities and activities, helps gain district buy-in and creates a culture of conservation
• Free electricity monitoring equipment and coaching to track electricity use in real time on a web-based dashboard
• Free hands-on resources for engaging students, including printable educational materials and learning activities
• Free recognition opportunities and connections to peer districts

“We understand how limited resources are — especially staff time and money — for districts in Colorado, and we also know how important conservation is for the bottom line,” explains program manager Susan Bartlett. “CEO’s program aims to help each district understand its baseline, set conservation goals and make both operational and behavioral improvements that are tangible and teachable.”

Operations and maintenance costs are the second highest operating costs for K-12 schools after instructional spending, according to the Financial Transparency for Colorado Schools website. It’s estimated that more than $2 billion could be saved nationwide by improving energy efficiency in school buildings, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To reduce these costs, the EES program provides districts with:
• A menu of easy-to-do efficiency projects and activities
• Improved learning and leadership opportunities for students
• Resource planning support and best practices for long-term energy, water and cost savings
• Help identifying and pursuing potential funding sources
• Tools to maintain momentum
• Improved environment for students, teachers and administrators

To date, two districts are testing the new pilot. In March and April, Gunnison Watershed School District took conservation to its classrooms to raise awareness about energy and water use. “The support for student engagement and classroom activities has been the most exciting part of the program so far. Our teachers have been very enthusiastic about engaging both their classrooms and beyond, with the goal to not just teach in their classrooms but to engage the entire district,” explains Transportation and Facilities Manager Paul Morgan. “The engagement support ESS provides is helping us build more than just a one-year curriculum. Our aim is to continue engaging future students in conservation learning and activities for years to come.”

Sheridan School District began student and staff engagement in April. As part of the program, both districts will complete a Resource Management Plan that identifies additional operational and behavioral activities they will undertake in the next school year and how they plan to share their progress with the broader school community.

There are still two spots remaining for school districts interested in participating in the pilot this school year. You can learn more about the pilot on the program website: ColoradoESS.org. If you know of a school that might benefit from the program, contact Bartlett at 970-207-0058 or ess@brendlegroup.com.

Writer Katie Kershman is with the Brendle Group, an engineering and planning firm.

YVEA Awarded EV Charging Station Grant

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

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

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.

Co-ops’ Commitment to Zero Contacts

By Amy Higgins

Complacency can be dangerous. And with years of experience and daily repetition, it is easy to get complacent — both at home and on the job.

But complacency at work, especially for electric lineworkers, can be disastrous. Working with electricity is one of the most dangerous jobs out there and one mistake can lead to a catastrophic event. For example, if a lineworker fails to inspect his rubber gloves and has the smallest tear, he could be vulnerable to a fatal contact with electricity.

A new electric co-op initiative is designed to help lineworkers get back to basics, slow down and take time to be safe.

Identifying the problem
About five years ago, the injury rate at electric cooperatives was declining, but a closer look showed that the most serious injuries and fatalities were far too frequent to ignore. From 2006 to 2016, the electric cooperative industry experienced an average of 23 injuries per year. Of those injuries, approximately 40 percent — 10 to 11 per year on average — were from an electrical contact.

“When we looked across the industry, it was the same across communities in the industry, so we started partnering with Federated (the electric co-op insurance company) and meeting with cooperative leaders and looking at what we could do to study the problem,” said Bud Branham, director of safety programs at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. “We started looking at that [data] and realized very quickly it’s a cultural- or behavioral-based problem where people — at organizations and co-ops — get blind spots over time, and in those blind spots you might have some inconsistencies in your basic work practices.”

“A lot of times we just focus on the power lines; we don’t focus on the other things around us,” said Dale Kishbaugh, director of safety and loss control at Colorado Rural Electric Association. Things like surrounding traffic, uneven working ground or confined spaces could affect how safely a job is done.

“We want to slow people down, especially on the routine work, and we want to do good job planning,” Branham explained.

Creating the program
Driven by the dedication of the safety of cooperative employees, NRECA, Federated Rural Electric Insurance Exchange and the safety leaders at the nation’s electric cooperatives introduced the Commitment to Zero Contacts initiative in April 2018. Through the program, participants are asked to take a pledge to take all the necessary steps at work and home to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities.

Following protocols, even if it makes the job longer, means everyone goes home at the end of the day.

Following protocols, even if it makes the job longer, means everyone goes home at the end of the day.

“We also asked senior leaders and the employees at the co-op, especially the field employees, to make a commitment. That commitment is really key,” Branham explained. “All the research shows that when people make a voluntary commitment that links to their internal values and they put it in writing — display it publicly — it has a large effect on changing or affecting their behaviors and awareness.”

“Commitment to Zero is not the next program; it is an initiative focused on eliminating contacts by permanently changing culture and addressing perception and behavior,” noted Corey Parr, Federated vice president of safety and loss prevention. “The initiative is focused on three keys: awareness, expectation and accountability.”

Commitment to Zero Contacts comes with a slate of resources to help electric co-ops get started, including implementation guides, placards, videos and promotional materials. Federated even created an app: S.A.F.E.

An acronym for Stop And Focus Everyday, the S.A.F.E. app is a job-planning tool to help workers avoid missing crucial steps at every job site, especially the most routine jobs where oversight and injuries are most common.

“The intention is just trying to get everybody to do their best every day, and if you see somebody in harm’s way, prevent it before it happens,” Kishbaugh said.

Rolling out the initiative
“We’ve done the groundbreaking with the ‘speak up, listen up’ training,” Kishbaugh said. “We’re just continually going out to support our co-ops and making an effort to get everybody to make that commitment that they’re going to go home the same way they came to work every day.”

Many electric cooperatives already have a safety program established and use the Commitment to Zero Contacts program to enhance it, which is highly encouraged. Fort Collins-based Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association and Mountain View Electric Association, with offices in Falcon, Limon and Monument, are two Colorado cooperatives doing just that.

“When I heard about the program, rather than just jump on it right away, I came back and I talked with our safety team to get their ideas,” said Jeff Wadsworth, president and chief executive officer at PVREA. Wadsworth handed it off to a team of employees, which consisted of linemen, equipment operators, tree trimmers and even office employees who also face work hazards every day.

The PVREA team took the Commitment to Zero Contacts initiative, integrated it into their current safety program and began promoting it with specially-made hard hats, stickers and signs. They even created a video called “This is My Why,” featuring PVREA families who remind their loved ones to be safe on the job, saying: “We want our loved ones home at night,” “So we can grow old together” and “So we can play LEGO games.”

Based on employee feedback, MVEA rolled Commitment to Zero Contacts into its “Commitment to Safety” program that targets three groups within the co-op: leadership, qualified employees and employees who do not work with high voltage. Those in each group were asked to sign a “Commitment to Safety” pledge.

“When employees get hurt, or worse, it affects everyone and changes everyone forever,” said Todd Thomas, safety compliance administrator at MVEA. “This effort is intended to remind us to slow down, be safe and watch out for each other. We do this for ourselves, our families, our friends and our co-workers.”

MVEA’s “Commitment to Safety” logo can be found on all internal memos, the monthly safety posters, in the monthly employee newsletter and on employee wallet cards that highlight MVEA’s Safety Improvement Plan Priorities as well as important RESAP (Rural Electric Safety Achievement Program) information.

As of late February, 14 of those in Colorado’s electric co-op community had made the Commitment to Zero Contacts; 530 co-ops nationwide made the pledge.

“The commitment we ask for is not about people admitting they’re doing anything wrong or that there’s any finger pointing, or blame pointing,” Branham explained. “It has nothing to do with liability. In fact, we hope that the commitment will reduce the exposure, and the co-ops are aware across the country so that we have our people go home safe at night. Basically, that’s the bottom line.”

Amy Higgins is a freelance writer for Colorado Country Life.

Colorado Co-ops Tour Utility-Connected Home

Colorado electric co-op directors and managers have just returned from a national meeting where they had a chance to learn about hundreds of innovative technologies and products that can help their co-op stay current and offer more energy efficiency to consumer-members.

At the TechAdvantage Lab, co-op leaders toured a utility-connected home. The Lab featured tech products that covers the home from the outside in: Doorbell cameras, smart door locks, smart thermostats, smart lights and dimmers, connected garage door openers, a SmartHub voice assistant and, of course, an electric vehicle and home 10kW EV charger.

TechAdvantage also included breakout sessions with speakers talking about the latest and greatest innovations that have the ability to connect consumer-members and co-ops through smart apps, a home hub and home appliances such as water heaters that connect to the grid. These all have the potential to talk to the co-ops directly and maximize energy efficiency.