| Colorado governor praises co-ops’ efficiency programs |
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| Written by News Release | |||
| Wednesday, 04 February 2009 03:00 | |||
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter — a rising political star often in the national spotlight for his acceleration of Colorado’s renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts — recently turned the spotlight onto two of his state’s electric cooperatives, Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association (Tri-State) for their energy efficiency programs.
Gov. Ritter praised both cooperatives’ efforts at a “New Energy Economy” update Mon., Jan. 26, speaking to capacity crowd in the City of Montrose’s historic Elks building which is now used for city council meetings. The city facility was retrofitted with a geothermal heat pump and other efficiency measures in 2006, providing a green venue for the event. DMEA’s and Tri-State’s programs and incentives for geothermal heating and cooling, Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), and Light-Emitting Diode (LED) holiday lighting were noted by the governor. Governor Ritter also joined Tri-State general manager Ken Anderson in presenting a $9,150 rebate check to Marshall Collins of the Cobble Creek Golf Community in Montrose for the development’s 52-ton geothermal heating and cooling system in its elegant new clubhouse. Gov. Ritter commended the “shared passions” of DMEA and its power supplier, Tri-State. “Of all the electric associations, DMEA is among our strongest partners for a clean energy economy,” Ritter said. Gov. Ritter highlighted the economic benefits of DMEA’s 100,000 CFL campaign in his remarks, which have resulted in “an expected $300,000 or more reduction in wholesale power costs to DMEA, and millions of dollars in savings to DMEA members over the life of the long-lasting CFLs.” Tri-State provided a $1/CFL rebate, offsetting the cost to DMEA for the program by more than $100,000. DMEA energy service supervisor Phil Zimmer reported that DMEA also sent out more than $11,000 in Tri-State-funded rebates for holiday LED lights this past season. Gov. Ritter, who directed that the governor’s residence be retrofitted with both a geothermal heating and cooling system and solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, praised DMEA’s new geothermal loop tariff, through which the co-op installs, owns, and maintains the loop component of a residential geothermal system. Combined with the rebate from Tri-State for geothermal heating and cooling and a new federal tax credit of up to $2,000 for home geothermal systems, the upfront cost of these environmentally-friendly systems has been substantially reduced, providing much lower heating and cooling bills than through conventional systems to co-op members. “It shows how rural Colorado is setting an example,” Governor Ritter said. “They, DMEA, are true innovators.”
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