RIDGWAY, July 19, 4:30 p.m. – The San Miguel Power Association, which signed a 10-year contract extension with its power supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association earlier this year, has been scrutinized by its power-consuming members in their demand for more baseload generation produced by renewable energy sources. Now, SMPA’s Board of Directors want to know how far power consumers will go for renewables and whether they will pay the price.

By the end of the year, SMPA officials will have produced a consumer referendum to gather information about how far their consumers may be willing to go for renewable energy.

“We have had a lot of people in agreement of what they want us to do,” said SMPA Director Marcus Wilson at a July 18 meeting of the SMPA board in Ridgway. “I think we should have a referendum over our entire service territory to get a feel of what our consumers are going to pay for. If they want to pay more for renewables, we can do it.”

Tri-State is planning to build three new coal-fired plants, one of which is on hold, in Western Kansas and Southeastern Colorado. Right now, the power supplier is currently at capacity and is purchasing expensive energy on the open market.

Under its contract with Tri-State, SMPA can locally purchase and/or produce up to five percent of its energy needs from renewable sources, the other 95 percent must be purchased from Tri-State.

“What I would like to do is get our organization together and formulate a set of questions and get an idea of who is backing us and what they want to do with renewables,” Wilson said.

SMPA plans to send its consumers those questions by the end of the year.

The New Community Coalition Asks for SMPA Input

San Miguel County’s regional sustainability group, The New Community Coalition, which is headed by Kris Holstrom and funded by San Miguel County and the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village wants SMPA to have a voice in their efforts to make the region more sustainable.

Holstrom asked SMPA’s Board of Directors this week if they would appoint either a staff member or a director to sit on the TNCC. Holstrom plans to have a sustainability master plan by the end of July.

“The goal of promoting sustainability and energy is obviously one of the larger ones,” Holstrom told SMPA’s Board of Directors on Wednesday. “Bobby Blair [former SMPA general manager] was on our board, and basically since that change, we wanted to come back to you and to put this in front of your organization so we can all put forward effective programs – efficiency programs – and to take a look at potential projects we can work on together.

“There are very simple and clear things people can do to become more energy efficient and we want you to buy in and continue to work with us to get more effective programs.”

It was unclear as to who will be appointed to the TNCC, but the idea was taken warmly by the board of directors.

“I would like to resolve that the board financially participates in the program,” Wilson said. “To the best of our ability, we need to nominate a representative to your board.”

General Manager Hiring Process Underway Without Public Input

SMPA’s Board of Directors will be interviewing candidates to fill the energy cooperative’s general manager position next week, without input from SMPA’s power consumers.

At SMPA’s annual meeting last June, many power consuming members wanted to add their input into the hiring process of a new general manager, a position that was vacated by Bobby Blair earlier this year. The idea was presented at the annual meeting that a possible “citizens advisory committee” could be created to give consumers a voice in who the directors would decide to hire.

That idea was shot down Wednesday from the board of directors, citing that it is the board’s job to hire its staff and that the public’s voice is in its vote when electing the board’s directors.