CREA executive director’s monthly column published in Colorado Country Life magazine.

Office space filled with packed boxes and disassembled furniture during a relocation.2025

Fresh Start, Energized Future

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If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on, maybe it’s this: moving — whether to a new home or a new office or into or out of your kid’s dorm room — generally stinks. The packing, wrapping, hauling, tossing out, and decision-making (should I keep that important file from 1978?) can be exhausting.

I’m happy to report, however, that the Colorado Rural Electric Association recently completed a successful move of our offices to a new location that will greatly enhance the association’s ability to support our members, Colorado’s electric co-ops.

I remember when CREA shared offices with Western United Electric Supply Corporation, an affiliated company that provides equipment to electric co-ops across the West. When Western United outgrew that space and headed out on its own, CREA found another building just north of downtown Denver that served our needs well for 25 years. Last year, however, we decided that we needed a new space that could accommodate our many programs and provide a better working environment for our employees.

We were fortunate to find a building in Lakewood that checked almost all the boxes for the attributes we were seeking: more square footage, easy access for our members, a good location for guests and visitors, turnkey condition — in this case a recent remodel — and a standalone property that would be used only by CREA.

Our new building will enable us to serve our members better since it has the capacity to host multiple events at the same time. It also has outdoor space that we can use for legislative receptions and other events when the weather cooperates — and we’re big on cooperation.

We also think there is good karma in the new building because it was originally built in 1968 as a branch of the Jefferson County Public Library. Incredibly, one of CREA’s board directors, Damon Lockhart from Delta-
Montrose Electric Association, spent time reading in this building as a kid before moving to the Western Slope later in life. We are thrilled to inhabit a building where so many young folks learned so much and we hope the work we do here will honor that tradition.

CREA is dedicated to the success of Colorado’s electric co-ops and we support them with legislative advocacy, safety programs, Colorado Country Life magazine, and education programs and classes. We appreciate our member cooperatives’ support of this move to a new facility that will allow us to continue that dedicated mission for many years to come.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Derek Mann/ iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

Texas Tragedy Sad Reminder of Big Thompson Flood

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The recent flash flood that resulted in the loss of more than 100 adults and children in the Texas Hill Country was a heart­breaking reminder of the power of Mother Nature and how lives can be lost and forever changed in an instant. There are no words to describe the anguish and sorrow of the many families impacted by this event.

The Texas tragedy hits home with many of us in Colorado who either lived through or have family or friends who lived through the flash flood that tore through the Big Thompson River Canyon nearly 50 years ago. While these two events occurred five decades apart, they are unfortunately similar in many ways.

During the evening hours of July 31, 1976, after nearly a foot of rain fell on the headwaters of the Big Thompson near Estes Park, a 20-foot wall of water roared down the canyon, sweeping away everything and everyone in its path. The flash flood that night took the lives of 144 adults and children; in a few cases, the victims were never found. In both the Texas flood and the Big Thompson Flood, the waters rose so fast and were so swift that there was little anyone could do to save the victims.

I was a teenager in Kansas at the time, but my sister Sandy was working as a horse wrangler at the Trails End Ranch for Girls (a unit of the Cheley Colo­rado Camps) near Glen Haven that night. The Cheley camps are operated by the Cheley family and have been a place of joy and learning for kids from all over the country for over 100 years. Sandy loved working at the camp, making friends that have lasted a lifetime, and teaching girls how to ride and take care of horses.

Thankfully, the Cheley camps were (and still are) located at a higher elevation and far enough from the Big Thompson River, so the flash flood did not directly impact the campers and staff. However, in those days long before cellphone service, families across the country — including mine — waited impatiently to hear news from Colorado and to find out if their kids were all right. My sister tells frightening accounts of the tragedies and close calls that occurred that night, a night she will never forget.

I remember clearly that as soon as we heard from Sandy, my folks and I got in the family car and headed west from Topeka, Kansas, to pick her up and bring her back home. We always loved coming to Colorado, but in this case, we were just relieved to see Sandy and give her a big hug.

As much as I’m grateful that our family did not lose my sister in the Big Thompson Flood, it reminds me that many folks then and now were not so lucky. We should keep them all in our prayers.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Baseball Memories

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I attended my first major league baseball game in 1965 when my family made a trip from Topeka, Kansas, to watch the Kansas City A’s play in the old municipal stadium in downtown Kansas City.

I don’t remember who the A’s played that night or any of their players — except for Campy Campaneris — but I remember very clearly the mule Charlie O., the team mascot. Charlie O. was named after A’s owner Charles O. Finley, who was something of a Barnum & Bailey-style team owner. I also remember that instead of a ball boy delivering new baseballs to the home plate umpire, a device would rise out of the ground behind home plate with a basket of baseballs served up on the outraised arm of a mechanical rabbit named Harvey (yes, after the Jimmy Stewart movie). The A’s stunk, but Mr. Finley wanted patrons to have a good time.

The A’s left for Oakland, California, after the 1967 season, and Kansas City was left without a baseball team until 1969 when the Kansas City Royals arrived, and a fancy new stadium was built. The Royals had a lot of success in the late 1970s, but lost three straight years in the American League Championship series to the dreaded New York Yankees — their formidable rival. Those Royals teams had great players including Frank White at second base, Freddie Patek at short, Amos Otis and Willie Wilson in the outfield, and, of course, the incomparable George Brett at third.

When I moved to Colorado in the mid-1980s, I continued to be a Royals fan until Denver was awarded the Colorado Rockies franchise and they began to play in 1993. I’ve been a Rockies fan ever since, although heaven knows in recent years that seems to be something of a fool’s errand. While listening to a recent Rockies game, however, I was reminded why I continue to love baseball: It takes me back to my youth.

On June 10, the Rockies took a 5-2 lead into the top of the ninth against the San Francisco Giants. Aided by walks and wild pitches, the Giants rallied to score four runs, capped by a two-out, two-run single by Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski. For those of us who grew up with baseball in the 1960s, the Yastrzemski name is legendary. Mike’s grandfather, Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, was one of the all-time greats for the Boston Red Sox. “Yaz,” as he was known, was an 18-time All-Star, a member of the 3,000-hit club, and the winner of seven Gold Glove awards. My mother, an avid baseball fan who listened to every Royals game on the radio with my dad, was always amused trying to pronounce the names of some of those mid-60s Red Sox players including Yastrzemski, Rico Petrocelli, and Tony Conigliaro.

So, while we suffer through another tough Rockies season, we can at least be reminded of the links to the past and hope for better days ahead. There’s always next year!

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

NRECA Legislative Conference Recap

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In last month’s Colorado Country Life, CREA’s Director of Government Relations, Taylor Ward, provided a recap of the association’s successful work during the recently completed session of the Colorado General Assembly.

While most of our political advocacy work for electric co-ops is done in Colorado, CREA also works with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to promote the interests of electric co-ops in Washington, D.C. We work with the offices of Colorado’s two United States senators and eight representatives to protect and promote the electric co-op business model on a national level.

As part of our federal advocacy, each year CREA supports and organizes Colorado’s electric co-op participation in NRECA’s annual Legislative Conference in Washington. This conference brings together over 2,000 electric co-op directors and staff from across the country to meet with members of Congress and address co-op concerns and issues.

At this year’s gathering, approximately 50 representatives of Colorado’s electric co-ops joined the CREA team in meetings with our Congressional delegation. We were fortunate this year that Congress was in session the week we were in D.C., so we were able to meet with both of our senators as well as five of our eight members of Congress. We also met with terrific staff members from the other three offices when the representatives had scheduling conflicts.

We focused on five main issues in our meetings in D.C. First, we thanked the members for their support of recent federal laws that provide funding to co-ops to complete projects that will improve the reliability and resiliency of rural electric systems. Second, we asked the members to continue to support co-op investments in wildfire mitigation projects, grid hardening, and cybersecurity improvements. Third, we asked the Colorado delegation to continue to support federal legislation that will provide a better opportunity for co-ops to remove hazardous trees and reduce the threat of wildfires. The Fix Our Forests Act expands the width of electric utility rights of way on federal lands and expedites the permitting process for co-ops to clear vegetation from around power lines. Fourth, we reminded our representatives of the importance of hydropower in our energy mix and asked that they support adequate staffing for the Western Area Power Administration. Fifth, we asked the members to continue to support the Federal Emergency Management Administration and its work with co-ops in the aftermath of natural disasters.

The Colorado congressional delegation has a wide range of viewpoints on energy policy and other matters. However, we believe that the mission of Colorado’s not-for-profit, member-owned electric co-ops is one that everyone can get behind.

We’re very grateful to the directors and staff of our member cooperatives who made the trip to Washington, D.C., and we collectively appreciate the work our delegation does on behalf of the state and Colorado’s electric co-ops. There is more work to be done on all of these issues, and Colorado’s electric co-ops will continue to partner with our members of Congress in the coming months to help co-ops serve their communities with reliable and affordable power.

Advocating in D.C. for Colorado Co-ops

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The Colorado Rural Electric Association spends many hours and resources representing the interests of its member co-ops before the Colorado General Assembly. Each year from January through May, CREA staff and contract lobbyists carefully follow all the legislative proposals considered by our state legislature to determine if they will have any impact on electric co-ops. This is a job that requires our attention 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make sure proposed new laws won’t have any negative impacts on electric co-op members.

In addition to our work at the state level, CREA also works with the national trade association — the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association — to promote and protect the interests of Colorado co-ops in Washington, D.C. While most of the policy action takes place in Colorado, there are many federal initiatives that are relevant to Colorado’s electric co-ops.

In 2021, the United States Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. One of the provisions of that law authorized electric co-ops to apply for grants and loans to help pay for distribution grid projects that will reduce the risk of wildfires and improve the resilience of electric co-op systems. In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which included a loan and grant program specifically for electric co-ops. The funds authorized by this law were made available to electric co-ops to help them acquire new generating resources and improve the reliability of their systems.

Colorado’s electric co-ops collectively spent thousands of hours working with the appropriate government agencies and filing applications for these grants and loans. Over the last year or so, CREA’s member co-ops have been extremely successful in being awarded grants and loans that will be administered by the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Homeland Security. These grants and loans provide a historic opportunity for Colorado’s electric co-ops to invest in infrastructure that will serve their members at the end of the line with affordable, reliable electricity for many years into the future.

I recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with a group of Colorado co-op CEOs to meet with our members of Congress to emphasize the critical importance of these loans and grants to Colorado’s electric co-op members. Co-ops serve about 70% of Colorado’s land mass, and any help we can get to keep rates affordable and service reliable is much appreciated.

The grants and loans that have been committed to Colorado’s electric co-ops will benefit thousands of Coloradans, and we urge all officials of the federal government to honor these commitments.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Colorado co-op members gather at CREA 80th Annual Meeting.2025

Celebrating 80 Years

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Eighty years! That’s how long the Colorado Rural Electric Association has been advocating for and providing services to Colorado’s electric cooperatives. Founded in 1945, our trade association has partnered with our member co-ops for decades to support their mission of providing reliable and affordable electricity to all corners of Colorado. We celebrated our 80th anniversary during the recent annual meeting of our members in Denver; here are some highlights.

Industry Updates

In addition to full-day education sessions focused on cooperative governance and power supply issues, we hosted an amazing group of speakers on a wide variety of topics: an economic update from CFC; an update on activities in the U.S. Congress from CoBank; a state political update from our CREA government relations team; a panel discussing data centers and their potential impacts on co-ops, and a co-op power supplier conversation.

The meeting was an opportunity for co-op directors and CEOs to hear the latest on what’s happening in the fast-moving electric industry.

Light Up Navajo

Attendees also heard from Walter Haas, the head of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. We have worked with NTUA for the last couple of years to send co-op lineworkers to the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona to help build electric lines to homes without access to power. Last year, line crews from seven Colorado electric co-ops worked with employees of NTUA to construct distribution lines to serve dozens of families. Haas made a special trip to Denver to thank our co-ops and CREA for their contribution to this work. We look forward to continuing our support of NTUA to help power the lives of the many Navajo citizens who are still living without electricity.

Legislative Reception and Breakfast

Our annual meeting is always scheduled when the Colorado General Assembly is in session so that we can meet with legislators and talk about issues that concern electric co-ops. We had great participation by the members of our legislature again this year and we had a chance to talk about the many issues facing our members, including the risks posed by wildfires on rural communities.

Our 80th annual meeting was a huge success due to the engagement of our members and the excellent work of the entire CREA team. We look  forward to another 80 years protecting the interests of Colorado’s electric cooperatives!

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Wildfire Mitigation – A statewide viewpoint

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The recent wildfires in California are a heartbreaking reminder of the risks that face many communities in the arid western United States. While a combination of drought, high winds, and low humidity all conspired to create the conditions for this tragic event, it’s not clear yet who or what was responsible for igniting the fires. It has been suggested that electric utility facilities may have been the cause of at least one of the wildfires, although that has not been proven.

Whether or not the Southern California wildfires were caused by electric power lines, there is no doubt that utility facilities have previously been the cause of wildfires in California. Colorado’s electric co-ops are very much aware of these risks, and they do everything in their power to reduce the possibility that their facilities will cause a wildfire. Electric co-ops go to great lengths to clear vegetation from around their power lines and other facilities, and they are leaders in deploying new technology to anticipate and detect conditions where wildfires may be more likely.

Colorado’s electric co-ops also prepare wildfire mitigation plans that spell out in detail all the steps they take to lower the risks of wildfires. But even the most comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan does not guarantee safety. With thousands of miles of power lines across the state, many of which traverse remote forests and public lands, it is impossible to mitigate all the risks.

For that reason, CREA has been working on a legislative proposal that would recognize the work being done by Colorado’s electric co-ops around wildfire mitigation. The bill would provide some measure of liability protection for those co-ops that have implemented a state-approved wildfire mitigation plan. Without a bill like this, it may become impossible for Colorado co-ops to obtain adequate liability insurance to protect their consumer-members. Other states have passed similar legislation, and we’re hopeful that the Colorado legislature will consider this bill — if not this year, then in the 2026 session of the legislature.

Colorado’s electric co-ops need reassurance that if they do everything that is reasonably possible to mitigate the risk that their facilities will cause a wildfire, they will not be subject to lawsuits that could literally bankrupt them. Co-ops will always do everything in their power to protect the communities they serve, including investing time and money in measures to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op.

Solar panels on roof

Behind The Meter: How Does At-Home Energy Generation Impact the Grid?

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By Kent Singer, CREA Executive Director

Since the inception of the Colorado electric co-op program in the 1930s, the traditional path for delivering electricity to co-op members has largely remained the same: Power is generated at a central station power plant, transmitted across high voltage transmission lines, and finally distributed over a local system to end-use customers at their homes and businesses. While the source of the “central station” power varies from state to state, the basic system of generation, transmission and distribution (G,T&D) of electricity has looked the same for decades.

This “G,T&D” model will remain the path for most of the electricity consumed by Colorado’s electric co-op members for years to come; however, more and more co-op members are opting to generate electricity at their premises. They do this by using solar panels on their rooftops or other sources of power that are “behind the meter.” And, as is the case for most renewable energy generation, it’s not always available and fluctuates depending on weather conditions. With that in mind, there are two scenarios at play for a co-op member’s on-premise system: Excess generation and inadequate generation.

If a co-op member’s residential rooftop solar system produces more electricity than they consume, Colorado’s electric co-ops have agreed to — and state law requires them to — “net meter” the energy the co-op receives from member-owned solar arrays. Net metering simply means that when excess electricity is exported to the grid, the co-op member receives kilowatt-hour credits valued at the retail rate. A member of a Colorado electric co-op can reduce the amount of electricity they purchase from the co-op since the solar panels on their rooftops are producing at least some, if not all, of the power they require for their home or business. In this scenario, the co-op member who is generating excess electricity benefits from their use of the co-op distribution system to manage and credit their excess solar energy production.

Unless they are completely off the grid and are generating all the electricity they need, co-op members with rooftop solar systems must still be connected to the co-op’s distribution infrastructure. This ensures the delivery of electricity to their home or business whenever it is required — for example, during a string of cloudy days when their solar panels don’t generate adequate electricity. Electric co-ops have a legal obligation to maintain adequate facilities in order to provide reliable electric service to their members.

It’s true that the need for a co-op to purchase power from a wholesale supplier is decreased when its members generate their own electricity. However, the co-op is still responsible for maintaining a robust distribution system that will serve all the co-op’s members.

This raises an important question for Colorado’s electric co-ops (and other electric utilities): If an electric co-op member benefits from the poles and wires to provide electricity when the rooftop solar panels aren’t sufficient, but that member no longer buys any or as much power from the co-op, should that member be required to pay for the continuing maintenance and replacement costs of those facilities?

As more and more co-op members install solar arrays, the way that co-ops compensate their members for consumer-sited generation may need to be reexamined. With the increase in residential solar systems, co-ops receive less revenue from energy sales, but they continue to have expenses related to maintaining the distribution grid. Co-ops may also need to make new infrastructure investments to enable the storage of excess solar production to help meet peak demands for electricity in the afternoon.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether any changes need to be made to the existing net metering rules from both the perspective of solar installers and electric utilities. As not-for-profit utilities, co-ops aren’t incentivized to make a profit, but they still must meet their payrolls, run their trucks, and invest in system maintenance and improvements. These costs are shared among all co-op members.

Colorado’s electric co-ops go to great lengths to treat all of their members fairly and equitably, and they will continue to do so as they integrate more behind-the-meter, customer-sited renewable energy resources.

 

Kent Singer is the executive director of CREA and offers a statewide perspective on issues affecting electric cooperatives. CREA is the trade association for 21 Colorado electric distribution co-ops and one power supply co-op