Energy Solutions In the News

Investor-owned utilities supply about 60 percent of the electricity consumed in Colorado. The rest is provided by municipal utilities and rural electric co-ops. A few of these utilities, such as the Delta Montrose co-op and the Fort Collins municipal utility, offer a broad range of energy-efficiency programs for their customers. But most municipal utilities and co-ops do not. This results in electricity waste and high-demand growth, forcing utilities to invest in costly new sources of power and raise their electric rates. Tri-State Generation and Transmission, the main supplier of electric power to rural electric co-ops in the state, raised its wholesale power rates by 48 percent in the last four years alone. Furthermore, inefficient energy use leads to unnecessary pollution from power plants.