PVREA reduces Green Power rate

Poudre Valley REA has lowered the price of Green Power to 7.5 cents per 100 kilowatt-hours.

Green Power is a voluntary program that allows PVREA consumers to offset their electricity use from renewable energy sources. When the program began in 1999 the cost to participate was $2.50/100 kWh.In 2011 that cost had dropped to 9 cents.

Green Power is offered in 100 kilowatt-hour blocks as a surcharge to electric service. The PVREA average home uses just under 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month, according to the co-op. At the new price, an average household can go all green for just 75 cents per month.

The PVREA Green Power program is among the oldest in the state to allow consumers to support renewable energy projects. In 2011, PVREA consumers purchased more than 24 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy through the Green Power program. Businesses also participate and several companies on the PVREA grid are 100 percent green, including the Vestas Blades plant in Windsor.

The money generated from the program goes to fund projects at Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which supplies wholesale power to PVREA and 43 other electric cooperatives in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico. In 2010 Tri-State completed work on the 30-megawatt Cimmaron1 solar farm in New Mexico and the 51-megawatt Kit Carson wind farm in eastern Colorado.

PVREA recently signed an agreement with Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District to purchase 100 percent of the electricity to be generated by the 2.4 megawatt Carter Lake Hydropower plant currently under construction.

Poudre Valley REA also offers rebates up $4,500 for residential solar photovoltaic systems and currently has 98 homes with PV panels connected to their grid that can generate up to 552 kilowatts of electricity.

For more information on Green Power, go to www.pvrea.com or call 800-432-1012.