Year-end operating margins totaled approximately $3.5 million and total margins to be allocated to the membership totaled approximately $3.7 million, according to YVEA President and General Manager Larry Covillo. YVEA returned nearly $3.2 million in capital credits to its 1995 members in June of this year.

The downturn in the 2009 economy is best illustrated by a decrease of gross operating revenue of 7.4% compared to 2008 and a decrease in kilowatt-hour sales of 2.5% from 2008. New services installed in 2009 were 218, compared to 337 new services in 2008. Average outage minutes per month, per consumer dropped from 15 minutes in 2008 to 8 minutes in 2009. “Depending on how this year goes, we expect to see a reduction in work orders written; another sign of a slowing economy,” commented Mr. Covillo.

Board Chairman Jim Simos reported on efforts to reduce operating expenses and hold the line on rates. YVEA currently has the lowest residential rates of all electric cooperatives in the state.

Members, after hearing brief speeches from all candidates, voted on the one contested director election for District #5. Incumbent Sam Haslem received the largest number of votes, outdistancing Ms. Patty Bruchez and Mr. Dan Trevithick. Members in attendance also voted to approve the Association’s resolution to deregulate from the Wyoming PUC on rates. Colorado members voted to deregulate in 1982.

The meeting concluded with a raffle of door prizes and relocated to the High School Cafeteria for a complimentary lunch.

2009 Annual Meeting Minutes
The Annual Meeting of Members of Yampa Valley Electric Association, Inc., hereinafter called the “Association”, was held at the Hayden High School Auditorium in Hayden, Colorado, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 20, 2009.

Jim Simos, Chairman of the Board, called the meeting to order and announced that 81 members were registered which constituted a quorum for the transaction of all business.

Members recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

The invocation was given by Reverend William Ditges of Hayden Baptist Church.

An early bird door prize gift certificates to Walmart for $50, provided by ESC Engineering from Fort Collins, was awarded.

Mr. Simos introduced the Board of Directors. He introduced Tom Sharp, Association attorney, and appointed him parliamentarian for the meeting.

Mr. Covillo, General Manager of the Association, introduced the special guests: Senator Al White; Former Senator, Jack Taylor; City Councilman of Craig and former YVEA employee Ray Beck; and Director of Accounts Manager for Xcel Energy, Dave Krupnick.

The Chairman called for the selection of a Teller Committee. Noreen Moore, Ramona Kirby, Laurie Buelow, Kathy Bertrand and Thomas Connor were appointed. The Chairman asked the Teller Committee to begin the count of ballots returned by mail.

Mr. Simos called on Robert Miller to present the Secretary’s report. Mr. Miller read the Affidavit of Mailing the Notice of the Annual Meeting and the Proof of Publication,. He then read the minutes of the 2009 Annual Meeting of Members. Upon motion being duly made and seconded, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the 2009 Annual Meeting of Members are approved.

Mr. Simos called upon Mr. Miller to present the Treasurer’s report. Mr. Miller referred members to their copies of the Financial Report as of December 31, 2008 as presented in the Annual Report on page 4. The Balance Sheet and the Receipt and Expense Report were then reviewed. Mr. Miller also presented the favorable audit opinion from the CPA audit firm of Schmidt and Company. Upon motion being duly made and seconded, the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

RESOLVED that the Treasurer’s Report be accepted as presented.

Mr. Simos gave his report as Chairman of the Board. He welcomed the members to the annual meeting and thanked them for their participation. Mr. Simos briefly covered the topics of our Nations energy crisis and the possibilities of power shortages within the next few years. He also addressed the continued issue of climate change and the effect that future decisions will have on electric customers across the country. Mr. Simos talked about the grassroots awareness campaign by cooperatives to educate our elected officials on these issues. In addition Mr. Simos informed the membership that during the first quarter of 2009, YVEA commissioned an independent “Member Satisfaction and Attitude Survey” of the membership and was pleased with the very high overall satisfaction rating received back from the membership. Of the various matters in the survey, one of the items was electric rates and that in the survey members felt low rates were important to them. Mr. Simos conclude that he and the board are proud to be able to say that YVEA has the lowest residential electric rates among electric cooperatives in the state.

Mr. Covillo presented his report as President and General Manager of the Association. He welcomed the members to the 69th Annual Meeting of YVEA. At this time, Mr. Covillo recognized Margret Monger, who has attended everyone of the Associations’ annual meetings; and he also recognized Ruth Schneider who’s late husband Leo had served as a member of the Board in years past. Mr. Covillo said the Association continues to grow in both sales and consumers while margins decreased by $400,000 as result of the Board’s decision to absorb rate increases from Xcel Energy during the year 2008. The Association absorbed a general rate increase of 1.2 million dollars and another 200 thousand dollar transmission rate increase.

Mr. Covillo then reviewed the construction of the Association’s facilities during the past year, which amounted to almost 9 million dollars invested.

Mr. Covillo reviewed expenses and noted that operation and maintenance expenses decreased last year and the Association continues to have the lowest residential rate of all 22 cooperatives in Colorado.

Mr. Covillo informed the members that because their opinions are important to the Board, the Association recently conducted an independent member survey during the spring of 2009 to see what members thought were important. The response was that 92% were somewhat to very satisfied. The survey also showed that 93% of the members did not support higher rates for rebates on “renewable energy” but 78% agreed that it is more important to purchase low cost, clean, and efficient energy.

Mr. Covillo said the Association terminated the exploration of additional power resources with the developer of a waste coal plant in Wyoming due to escalating costs and an inability to deliver the product.

He went on to further inform the members that the Association is required by House Bill 1281, signed in 2007, to get 10% of our energy from renewable resources by 2020 and that the requirement for 2008 is 1%. Mr. Covillo said that the Association has received credits for 63 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy in 2008 that we paid for thru the Fuel Adjustment from Xcel and this now makes us the second largest purchaser of “renewable” by percentage of sales of the 22 coops in the State. The Association has both the green tag for the energy and the kilowatt-hours associated with the tag. Yampa Valley Electric has a total of 83 million kilowatt-hours of “renewable energy” to sell or bank for future years requirements.

Mr. Covillo then provided information on pending legislation involving carbon issues, in particular the Waxman-Markey Bill. The Board and Mr. Covillo have been actively lobbying the members of Congress on the fairness of their proposals, as we believe that the fate of the economy of the US will be affected.

Mr. Covillo encouraged conservation as the first step in controlling the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment. He suggested the purchase of energy star appliances and taking the simple measures of adding insulation and caulking as a way for members to reduce their electric bills. The Association continues to offer free compact florescent bulbs to the members to help in this effort.

Mr. Covillo said that on a positive note, the Association because of its strong financial position was able to refund 2.1 million dollars in Capital Credit retirements earlier this month. The members from 1994 received their remaining allocation and the members from 2007 received a portion of their funds that were on the books. The customer survey indicated that 69% of the members think that paying Capital Credits is somewhat to very important.

Mr. Covillo then discussed the Association’s subsidiaries. He reported that Paradigm Services Company has struggled with the gasoline distribution business because of shrinking volumes and increasing wholesale price. The slowdown in housing and general construction has hit the cable locating business as well and that our partnership in BTA Associates has been on hold for the past couple of years.

Mr. Covillo concluded, that all in all your Association continues to operate on a strong financial basis that should allow us to maintain rates that are below the national and state average for the foreseeable future.

He then thanked all of the employees of Yampa Valley Electric for their continued hard work and continued dedication to keeping the lights on.

The membership was then informed by Mr. Covillo that the Board had not made any bylaw changes since the last Meeting of Members and thanked the Board of Directors for their guidance and trust thru the year.

Mr. Covillo again thanked the members for their attendance and opened the floor to questions.

A member from the audience asked the question, has the Senate taken a vote yet on the Carbon Bill? Mr. Covillo responded that there have been no votes yet and that there is no carbon legislation yet. He further explained that there is an expected delay because of the economy but that legislatures have until 2011 to debate the issue in the Senate.

The next question came from Roger Stein. He began by commending the Association for keeping rates low but asked the Board to consider changing its’ priorities to “quality of power”. He stated that he felt “spikes and/or losses” of power were an issue to consider as well as low rates. He went on to state that he believed carbon was a real issue. Mr. Covillo agreed and answered that 9 million dollars had been spent on operation and maintenance during 2008 to beef up lines and combat outages and that animals were causing the substations to go down. He went on state that traps had been set at the substation sites and so far three raccoons had been trapped and relocated.

Bob Grubb then commented that the book “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” by Thomas Friedman should be read by everyone on the subject of climate change, population growth and the “Green Revolution” and expressed the value of a smart grid. Mr. Covillo acknowledged that a smart grid is a good thing but that governmental regulations were not yet out on the matter. He pointed out that “time of day usage” could also become a requirement. Mr. Covillo then stated that with the current national grid, the smart grid cannot tell from where power comes as electricity will take the path of least resistance. Mr. Covillo stated the real price signal for electricity is not available from any supplier in Colorado, so smart grid technology is not really applicable yet. He also pointed out that we are the only coop in the US with a flat rate to commercial and large power customers with no KW demand charge. He also affirmed, that of the 22 coops in the state, 18 purchase their power through Tri-State, but that YVEA buys from Xcel who generates 10% of its’ power from renewable energy and therefore we at YVEA receive 10% of our power from renewable energy. Mr. Grubb said that heat losses in houses need to be looked at and that the coop should guide customers. Mr. Covillo said that we do offer “Energy Audits” to our members but that the Board will not compete with the private enterprises in the area. For example, the sale of energy efficient appliances and thermo infrared scans are offered by other companies to the public, all of which used to be done by the association.

Ruth Greenwood presented the next comment. She commended the association on low rates and felt that outages were not that bad. She then stated that in her travels she noticed that many of the constructed wind turbines were not turning and wondered why they were not being used. Mr. Covillo said that the turbines at best only run 40% of the time as the wind is not a constant.

The last member comments came from Jim Mienkee who said YVEA is a great association.

There being no further questions or comments from the floor, the meeting proceeded to the next agenda item of Director Elections.

Mr. Covillo conducted the director election. He announced that Peggy Espy ran unopposed in Director District #1 and was therefore deemed re-elected.

Mr. Covillo reported two petitions were received for the position in Director District #8; Scott McGill and Susan Holland and for the position in Director District #9; Charles Perry and Megan Moore-Kemp. He called upon each candidate to address the membership.

Susan Holland was the first to address the membership and stated her reasons for seeking election to the District 8 position. She stated that this was her 3rd year to run for the Board. She expressed continued concerns for the association in its’ future planning and down the road issues involving Renewable Energy; Co2, and the current artificially low rates of electricity. Next, Scott McGill addressed the membership in seeking re-election to the District 8 position. He stated that he was elected three years ago for the first time and appreciated the experience. Mr. McGill then summarized dividends, rates, and the new policies that he initiated or supported since joining the Board of Directors. He stated that government should be encouraged to fund research into making coal burn cleaner. Mr. McGill concluded that judgment and balance is the real challenge and that we should look at proven things to do.

Megan Moore-Kemp, a native of Routt County, was then next to address the membership in seeking election to the post for the District 9 position. She stated that her goal if elected would be to invest in energy efficiency as a way to manage energy costs, meet environmental concerns, and prepare for future legislation involving energy efficiency. She also stated that she believes YVEA should provide members one place to go and get information on the various incentives, services and contractors that are available to the public and that more programs need to be offered by YVEA. Next, Chuck Perry addressed the membership in seeking re-election to the District 9 position. He spoke to the need for a comprehensive energy policy from government for utilities to follow and of the lack of consideration of growth in population. He then stressed the need for an emphasis on productivity, new economy jobs, and the economic effects that green jobs may have on existing jobs. Mr. Perry concluded by making known the importance of coal in all aspects of industry and not just in the generation of power.

The members then marked their green ballots for District #8, and District #9. The ballots were collected to be combined with those returned by mail. Mr. Covillo declared the election process as closed.

Mr. Covillo called for any unfinished business, but there was none.

Mr. Covillo called for any new business, but there was none.

While ballots were being counted, Jim Chappell conducted the drawing for door prizes. The last prize was a gift certificates to Walmart for $100, donated by Excel Energy.

The Teller Committee returned the director election results to the meeting. In District 8, Scott McGill received 1,493 votes; Susan Holland received 1,089 votes. Mr. McGill was therefore elected as Director District 8. In District 9, Charles Perry received 1,404 votes; and Megan Moore-Kemp received 1,162 votes. Mr. Perry was therefore elected in Director District 9. Mr. Simos thanked both Ms. Holland and Ms. Moore-Kemp for running for the Board of Directors.

Mr. Simos invited the members to a catered barbeque lunch down the hall from the Auditorium to be served after the close of the meeting.

Mr. Simos announced the conclusion of the regular business meeting. There being no further business and upon motion being duly made, seconded and unanimously approved, the meeting adjourned.
Secretary
APPROVED:
Chairman of the Board

The Association does not provide any upfront financial incentives to install solar  equipment. 

Colorado’s interconnection rules (H.B 1169, enacted in 2007) stipulates that inverter-based systems have a maximum nameplate capacity of 10 kilowatts (kW) for residential loads and a maximum nameplate capacity of 25 kW for commercial loads.  These systems must comply with the IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards.  Minimum liability insurance with a single occurrence limit of $300,000 is required at the customer’s expense.

Members who install inverted based solar equipment must sign an interconnection agreement with YVEA.  A copy of the interconnection agreement is attached: Renewable Energy Interconnection Agreement