PVREA members vote to retain incumbent directors

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

Members of Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association returned incumbent board members to their posts at their annual meeting March 10, but two candidates pushing for greater attention to renewable energy came close to unseating them.

Incumbents Thaine Michie of LaPorte, Keith Croonquist of Loveland and Georglyn Diehl of Ault will serve three-year terms. Michie worked for Platte River Power Authority for 18 years and retired in 1999 as general manager. Croonquist is a retired earth science teacher, and Diehl is a retired rancher and wheat farmer.

Longmont organic grower Stephen Szabo, who advocates for more diversified energy sources, gathered 527 votes to Michie's 535 votes. In a three-way race, renewable energy promoter Roger Alexander of Fort Collins pulled in 440 votes to Croonquist's 455 votes. Donald Shanfelt of Windsor received 169 votes. Diehl was unopposed in her race and received 432 votes.

Szabo, who also ran unsuccessfully for a board seat a year ago, said he plans to try again next year when the position of Robert Lock of Longmont is up for election. His and Alexander's efforts have drawn increased interest in the board races, he said, though the REA has a difficult balloting process requiring members to send in a postcard to get a ballot or to attend the annual meeting in Fort Collins.

Alexander, a self-employed energy consultant, said he is undecided about running again.

Both Alexander and Szabo have questioned the need and wisdom of the REA's wholesaler, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, to build two new coal-fired power plants in western Kansas and a third in southeastern Colorado to meet future energy demands. The cost for the plants and transmission lines is expected to cost $5 billion.

Guest speaker Mac McLennan, Tri-State's senior vice president of external affairs, used the annual meeting to promote the Tri-State plan. The Tri-State board does not want to be at the mercy of other energy producers, he said, so it has set out a long-term plan to develop coal assets. Tri-State will also keep up with technological changes, he said.

Alluding to criticisms that electric rates will increase dramatically to pay for the coal-fired plants, McLennan said it's the competitive marketplace for energy sources that causes rate increases.

This annual meeting was the last for Ron Carey in his position of general manager, a job he's held for 25 years. Carey will be retiring and moving to Maine.

The board recently announced that it has selected Brad Gaskill, PVREA finance and information services manager, as the next general manager. Gaskill has 23 years of experience in the rural electric cooperative program and has worked at PVREA since November 2005. Gaskill took the role of assistant general manager on April 1 and will assume general manager duties on June 4.

In his speech at the 68th annual meeting, Carey said PVREA supports the efforts of its 1,100 members who do not want to become part of Fort Collins city limits through the Southwest Enclave Annexation. He urged Fort Collins residents to vote "yes" to revoke the city's forced annexation ordinance. City mail-in ballots are due April 3.

Carey also said PVREA will vigorously oppose efforts to form a municipal electric utility system for growth areas around Berthoud, which would infringe on REA territory.

"Any of you here who have been members of the association for many years already know that there isn't anything we fight for any harder than our service territory," Carey said.

On the state legislative front, Carey said the REA board opposes House Bill 1169 which allows customers of cooperative electric associations to install wind and solar generators to offset their utility costs through net-metering. (The bill passed the House 42-22 on March 23 and goes to the Senate for further review.)

PVREA already has in place a net-metering program for residential-sized renewable generation up to 10 kilowatts, which covers the typical residential solar or wind system. Carey said, however, HB 1169 would force cooperatives to net meter very large renewable systems up to 1 megawatt. The legislation "has the potential of creating large subsidies for a small group of relatively affluent consumers to the detriment of our other consumers," Carey said, because utilities would be purchasing energy at the same price they sell it.

In other business, PVREA officers reported that the member-owned utility ended 2006 with a positive operating margin of $1.1 million and a bottom-line margin of nearly $6.7 million. The association has 34,812 members in Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties. It takes 3,766 miles of distribution lines to reach them, for an average of 9.2 customers per mile.

Board president Rick Johnson noted that staying ahead of growth, both commercial and residential, has been a challenge. Two year ago, the Owens-Illinois bottle manufacturing plant tied into the REA grid. An ethanol production facility signed on last year. A natural gas pipeline pumping station and wind turbine blade-manufacturing company will soon be new customers, Johnson said.

Secretary-treasurer Jack Schneider reported the association's electric revenues reached an all-time high of $64.9 million, an increase of more than $8 million over last year. "The pass-through of Tri-State's rate increase and overall growth account for this increase, which is primarily the growth in the industrial rate class," Schneider said.

PVREA's cost to buy power from Tri-State increased by more than $6.5 million to $47.9 million, he said, while operating expenses grew to $10.5 million.