About Us: La Plata Electric Association, Inc. (LPEA) is a member owned, not-for-profit, electric distribution cooperative serving La Plata and Archuleta, with segments of Hinsdale, Mineral and San Juan counties. There are 22 cooperatives in Colorado, LPEA is the fifth largest cooperative in the state providing safe, reliable electricity at the lowest reasonable cost to approximately 34,200 members and powering more than 46,450 meters.
Headquarters: 45 Stewart Street, Durango, Colorado 81302 (Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2750, Durango, CO 81302-2750).
Branch Office: 603 S. 8th Street, Pagosa Springs, Colorado 81147 (Mailing Address: P.O. Box 305, Pagosa Springs, Colorado 81147-0305).
Office Hours: LPEA offices are open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 4th Wednesday of each month the LPEA lobby and customer service hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Offices are closed on select Federal Holidays.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LPEA’s offices are currently closed to the public. But our team remains available to support you remotely. For the latest updates visit https://lpea.coop/coronavirus.
Main Switchboard: (970) 247-5786 or (888) 839-5732
Number of Employees: 105
Chief Executive Officer: Jessica Matlock
Governing Body: LPEA is governed by a board of 12 directors. District 1 - Archuleta County includes Bob Lynch, Kirsten Skeehan and Holly Metzler; District 2 – South and West La Plata County includes Davin Montoya, Dan Huntington and Kohler McInnis; District 3 – City of Durango includes Britt Bassett, Rachel Landis and Joe Lewandowski; and District 4 – North and East La Plata County includes Jack Turner, Guinn Unger and Tim Wheeler. Four directors are elected each year at the LPEA Annual Meeting in May. Directors serve three-year terms and are welcome to run as incumbents once that term is up.
Power Supply: Tri-State Generation & Transmission (TSGT), Denver, CO., is a not-for-profit cooperative power supplier to 43 electric cooperatives and public power districts across the West. They provide power to more than one million members in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming. TSGT provides regional transmission facilities and delivers power to substations for LPEA to distribute to local cooperative members.
Energy Resource Mix: TSGT uses coal (56%) and natural gas (4%) as their primary fuel sources in the generation of electricity for LPEA’s members. Renewable energy (32%) is a critical secondary fuel achieved through a mixture of solar projects, wind farms, hydropower, heat and methane recovery in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Market purchases (8%) account for the additional energy resource mix.
Geographic Service Territory & Member Distribution
La Plata County, Colorado
Population: 56,310*
Durango: 18,985
Bayfield: 2,705
Ignacio: 888
LPEA Members: 25,214 (74.21% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 23,453 (93.02%)
Commercial: 1,761 (6.98%)
Archuleta County, Colorado
Population: 13,765*
Pagosa Springs: 2,005
LPEA Members: 8,500 (25.02% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 7,943 (93.45%)
Commercial: 557 (6.55%)
Hinsdale County, Colorado
Population: 811*
LPEA Members: 66 (0.19% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 63 (95.45%)
Commercial: 3 (4.55%)
Mineral County, Colorado
Population: 776*
LPEA Members: 29 (0.09% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 27 (93.10%)
Commercial: 2 (6.90%)
San Juan County, Colorado
Population: 762*
LPEA Members: 167 (0.49% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 161 (96.41%)
Commercial: 6 (3.59%)
Rio Arriba County, New Mexico
Population: 39,006*
LPEA Members: 2 (0.01% LPEA Membership)
Residential: 2 (100.00%)
Commercial: 0 (0.00%)
*2018 United States Census Bureau
2019 Annual Statistics
Service Area: 3,370 square miles
Total miles of line: 3,731 miles
Miles of distribution line: 3,527 miles
Miles of transmission line: 204 miles
Miles of line above ground: 1,898 miles
Miles of line below ground: 1,629 miles
Total meters: 46,486
Density (meters per mile): 11.85 meters
Energy sales: 966,090,168 Kilowatt-hours (kWhs)
Operating revenues: $108,311,065
Average monthly residential use: 685 Kilowatt-hours (kWhs)
Average monthly residential bill: $107.54
2020 La Plata Electric Association, Inc. Backgrounder (PDF file)