NE Colorado Has EV Charger, Thanks to Electric Co-op

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Highline Electric Association announced recently that its new Level 2 EV charging station is ready for public use at its headquarters in Holyoke. This is the first public charging station for electric vehicles the co-op owns and the first within the Phillips/Sedgwick/Chase/Washington county area of northeastern Colorado.

The Enel X JuicePedestal 40 dual head station was purchased by the co-op after it applied for a Charge Ahead Colorado grant last year through the Colorado Energy Office. In addition to receiving the grant, the northeastern Colorado co-op’s power supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, offers a rebate program to its member co-ops to help offset the costs of new EV infrastructure.

Rates for the station are $0.50 per charging session plus $0.08 per kilowatt-hour usage. Highline Electric Association Manager of Member Services Tad Huser says, “My Nissan Leaf takes about 12 kWh to charge back to 100% from my 40-mile commute from home to the HEA office. My charge costs the $0.50 session charge plus $0.96 for the 12 kWhs used for a total of $1.46.”

Highline Electric is excited for this EV charging station addition to its headquarters and region.

Community Solar Garden Begins Production

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Gunnison County Electric Association recently announced that the new community solar garden at its Gunnison headquarters is officially producing energy. This is the co-op’s second community solar garden. 

The new array is 101 kilowatts, which is five times the size of GCEA’s solar garden in Crested Butte. It’s clear that the community solar garden is a popular option for GCEA’s consumer-members to participate in clean, renewable energy; the short-term, month-to-month lease option is currently sold out. The co-op also offers a 20-year lease option. 

How does community solar work? Consumer-members may lease up to 5 panels per month at $4.71 per month, per share. Consumers then receive a bill credit for the monthly production of their solar shares. 

GCEA is working with other entities to develop additional community solar arrays and plans to have at least one additional project completed in 2021.

The solar garden is an easy and affordable way for GCEA consumer-members to support local renewable energy.

Tri-State logo

Tri-State Committed to Reduce Statewide Emissions

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During recent proceedings, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission accepted Tri-State Generation and Transmission’s voluntarily-announced retirement dates for its coal power plants Craig Station Units 2 and 3. This is after the AQCC was considering enforcing early closures.

According to a Tri-State press release, the plan meets or exceeds federal requirements to improve visibility in Colorado’s national parks and wilderness areas, according to Tri-State CEO Duane Highley. The cooperative power supplier’s Craig Station Unit 1 will retire by December 31, 2025; Craig Station Unit 2 by September 30, 2028; and Craig Station Unit 3 by December 31, 2029.

And separate from the AQCC proceedings, Tri-State and Gov. Jared Polis announced Tri-State’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado by 80% by 2030. This is part of Tri-State’s innovative Responsible Energy Plan. Tri-State filed its Electric Resource Plan with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on December 1. The ERP includes a preferred scenario to reach emissions reductions by retiring Craig station, adding 1,850 megawatts of renewable resources and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that support state goals.

EV Charger Added, Thanks to Co-op

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The town of Fraser took advantage of Mountain Parks Electric’s Electrify Everything program and installed a Level 3 electric vehicle charger. With a grant from the Granby-based electric cooperative and the Colorado Energy Office, this is the first fast-charging station in Grand County. It is located at Lions Ponds, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in late November.

 

 

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Co-op CEO Wins Award

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Poudre Valley REA CEO Jeff Wadsworth was named Fortnightly Foremost Innovator in Microgrids for 2020. The recognition was awarded by Public Unity Fortnightly, a utility organization that supports innovation. The yearly Fortnightly Top Innovators awards select the most outstanding individuals in 10 categories of innovation.

Wadsworth was honored for PVREA’s work installing a microgrid for Red Feather Lakes, a community which is served by one transmission line prone to damage from weather, natural disasters and human accidents. The cutting-edge microgrid technology will provide backup for the electric grid for the area. It is one of the first in the state. PVREA’s goal is to have the microgrid operational by spring.

Holy Cross logo

Co-op Commits to Go Carbon Free

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Holy Cross Energy in Glenwood Springs announced a new, ambitious 100X30 goal to provide 100% carbon-free electricity to its consumer-members by 2030. The announcement was made in a press conference December 14 with Gov. Jared Polis offering his congratulations to the co-op. The 100X30 plan follows the co-op’s Seventy70Thirty plan announced in 2018 in which the co-op pledged to provide 70% of its power from clean and renewable resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70% from 2014 levels by 2030. That plan is ahead of schedule and the co-op rewrote its goal to create the 100×30 goal.

Co-ops Back High-Speed Internet for Mancos

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Families are still facing the challenges of remote learning, but the town of Mancos is helping to reduce some of the burden for people who don’t have reliable internet access.

It was found that 20% of families in the Mancos school district were without reliable internet access at home. So the town of Mancos teamed up with FastTrack Communications to deliver free, high-speed internet from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily at a local park. FastTrack will provide a 100 mpbs dedicated internet connection available to families and students who otherwise won’t have a connection to participate in remote learning.

FastTrack is an internet subsidiary of southwestern Colorado electric cooperatives La Plata Electric of Durango and Empire Electric Association of Cortez.

San Isabel Electric Launches Efficiency Program

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This fall, Pueblo West-based electric cooperative San Isabel Electric rolled out its Empower program. This expansion of its energy-efficiency programs helps people create an energy-efficient home or business space with free energy assessments, net-metered home solar power systems, electric vehicle and charger rebates for consumer-members and products such as high-velocity, low-speed fans, electric water heaters, electric thermal storage and air source heat pumps, just to name a few. Many of these products and services can be bundled to maximize efficiency and energy savings.

According to an October press release, the San Isabel Electric Board of Directors said Empower is essential to continue the path of providing value for not only SIEA consumer-members but the entire southern Colorado region.

YVEA Receives Grant to Expand Fiber Infrastructure

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In late October, Steamboat Springs-based Yampa Valley Electric announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will award $6 million to YVEA and its fiber subsidiary, Luminate Broadband, to expand fiber internet service in northwestern Colorado.

The USDA will provide funding to YVEA/Luminate through its ReConnect program to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network. This will connect 264 rural households, 27 farms and ranches, 27 businesses, and three post offices to high-speed internet. With this funding, YVEA/Luminate will construct 200 miles of middle mile fiber to connect northwest Coloradans in Routt, Moffat and Eagle counties.

Consumer-members can test drive this Tesla electric vehicle

Electric Co-ops Share the EV Experience

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As part of an ongoing discussion about electric vehicles with its member distribution cooperatives, Tri-State Generation and Transmission created the EV Experience, an innovative electric vehicle allowing co-op consumer-members to try out EVs.

Access to electric vehicles can be limited in the rural areas that Colorado’s distribution cooperatives serve; consumer-members can’t easily go to an EV dealership for a test drive. Tri-State found this was preventing consumer-members from engaging with EVs, so the power supplier decided to provide the experience through five EVs that can be loaned to Tri-State member cooperatives.

These co-ops can take one of two Tesla Model 3 EVs, a Tesla Model Y, a Chevy Bolt or an electric Pacifica Minivan for a month at a time. During that time, the co-op is encouraged to allow consumer-members and co-op staff to ride and drive the EVs, providing a first-time EV experience for many.

The program began in May, and has been “wildly successful,” according to Tri-State Beneficial Electrification Manager Matt Fitzgibbon. In the first month, 30-40 drivers got behind the wheel of an EV. Seven Colorado electric co-ops have participated so far. One co-op even had 17% of its membership participate in the EV Experience. Matt says there has been overwhelmingly positive feedback, such as, “I was interested in getting an EV, but I’m going to do it sooner” and “I though these things would be boring and not fun to drive, but I’m blown away.”

This fall, Holyoke-based Highline Electric Association took Tri-State’s Chevy Bolt and had 41 unique drivers during the month.

Highline’s Member Services Manager Tadius Huser said, “It’s an awesome program; it was good education for people.” Huser said that people were surprised at the minimal amount of maintenance EVs require. Though drivers were concerned about range, especially since it’s an “infrastructure desert” in northeastern Colorado, “Tri-State is doing good work to change that,” Huser said. Highline will install a dual-head Level 2 public EV charger at its headquarters by the end of the year with funds from a Charge Ahead grant from the Colorado Energy Office and funds from Tri-State. It is also exploring installing a DC fast charger someplace in its service territory.

“The primary goal [of the EV Experience] is to get people behind the wheel. This provides boots on the ground feedback to promote EVs and EV charging infrastructure,” Fitzgibbon said. A long-term goal is to bring EVs to member co-op annual meetings to “spark the conversation and have a well-rounded discussion about beneficial electrification.”

Tri-State has thought of everything during these unique times. Keeping safety and hygiene at the forefront, each EV Experience event has a car-specific sanitizing kit and all the materials needed to clean the EVs between drivers.

Highline’s EV Experience was well-received by its consumer-members and the co-op is gearing up to take Tri-State’s Tesla Model Y in January. The co-op is expecting even more member engagement with the all-wheel drive Tesla SUV.