Read the Transcript:
Hello everyone, I'm Chris Hanson, CEO at La Plata Electric Association, your member-owned Co-op.
I'm happy to be coming to you today with July's update. We just finished our Board of Directors meeting and have several updates that I want to share with you.
First, I’m excited to announce our power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Vallecito Hydroelectric Facility. It's exciting news because for the first time in our history, we can buy local power from local generators and start to do it at scale to provide power for our members.
This is a contract that will supply about 5.8 megawatts of power over the next 10 years, during the length of the agreement. That's enough to power 2,500 homes in our service territory and it's going to be reliable, high capacity and provide us emissions-free electricity for our members. This is a really great win for the region and for all of our membership.
One of the reasons the Vallecito contract is so important for us is this is our chance to contract directly with power generators instead of our past and current supply obligations with Tri-State generation where we have a 95% obligation under that contract. This is a really positive change for us. It means we can have those direct contracts, take advantage of local suppliers and really build local jobs and local wealth.
The second update I have for you is around our request for proposals process (RFP). We went out to the market in June to see what the supply options would look like as we look out 5 and 10 years from now. I'm very pleased to report that we got 77 responses to that process and have more coming in all the time of people interested in supplying us with generation options. This includes all types of technology, solar, wind, battery storage options, gas, carbon sequestration, geothermal, hydro, everything in the mix.
As we look at the best portfolio for our membership, we're going to prioritize projects that are local, that build economic vitality here in our region, local jobs and local taxation to support public services. All of that is a top priority for us as we evaluate all of these proposals that have come in.
The third update I have for you is around our regional cooperation. As many of you may be aware, we're about ready to enter into a regional transmission organization, often referred to as an RTO. That means working closely with our neighbors like Farmington Electric on upgrading our transmission options and helping each other in times of need after a major disaster. So there are lots of great ways we're cooperating with our neighbors to provide even more value for our membership.
I'll see you soon at the fair!