[news clips] CREA Board Learns About CO2 Extraction May is an educational month for the Colorado Rural Electric Association Board of Directors. That is when the board travels to one of its member co-ops for its monthly board meeting to learn more about that particular co-op. This year, the directors spent two days at Empire Electric Association in Cortez in the southwestern part of the state. This CO2 plant near Yellow Jacket uses electricity supplied by Empire Electric. Empire Electric serves Dolores, Montezuma and San Miguel counties in Colorado, along with San Juan County, Utah. Its largest member is Kinder Morgan, which extracts carbon dioxide from deep wells north of Cortez and pipes that CO2 to the oil fields of Texas. There it is used to help unlock and recover crude oil from mature oil fields. CREA board directors toured the largest of seven Kinder Morgan facilities on Empire’s lines as they learned about this plant. It is located over the McElmo Dome, Empire Electric CEO Josh Dellinger (right) asks A tour guide explains the CO2 plant’s operation. one of the largest known fields of pure CO2 questions about the extraction process. in the world. About 1.3 billion cubic feet of CO2 is transported to that service when there is the most demand for that electricTexas daily, with the extraction process all powered by electricity ity and how it is used. Irrigators pull the largest load for co-ops supplied by Empire Electric. on the eastern plains of Colorado during the growing season. In Empire is one of 22 unique electric distribution cooperatives the mountains, some co-ops provide electricity for snowmaking that are members of CREA. While all of the co-ops aspire to equipment at resorts through the winter months. Others work provide reliable, affordable, safe and environmentally responsible with memberships that are mostly second homeowners, and othelectricity to their members 24/7, they all face different challenges ers supply power to the oil and gas industry. in doing so. May’s meeting is an opportunity for CREA member co-ops to These co-ops vary in how many members they have, how much understand the challenges electric co-ops in other parts of the electricity they sell, how many miles of line it takes to provide state face.
Support the Co-ops as They Pedal the Plains Pedal the Plains, the annual three-day bike tour of eastern Colorado, is set for September 15-17 with Colorado’s electric cooperatives as one of its sponsors and the co-op bike team raising money for Energy Outreach Colorado. The co-ops invite you to join them. You can register to ride the three days as a member of our Powering the Plains bike team or you can donate money to the team, which will go directly to Energy Outreach Colorado. The ride goes from Kersey to Keenesburg to Brush and back to Kersey. Register as a member of our team and get a special Powering the Plains bike jersey, as well as co-op gifts. Visit pedaltheplains.com and click on “Registration,” then on “3-day tour,” then on “Join an Existing Team,” and then on “Join Colorado’s Electric Cooperatives.” Not interested in riding a bike for three days? You can support the team and Energy Outreach Colorado by sending a tax-deductible donation. Visit www.poweringtheplains.coop for information on how to donate to the team.
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JULY 2017
Learn What’s New in the Electric Industry
Mark your calendars for Monday, October 30 for the 2017 CREA Energy Innovations Summit. Topics presented by high-caliber speakers will include regional transmission organizations in Colorado; net metering and electric vehicles; distributed energy resources; carbon capture; offshore wind; energy storage and more. Dr. Martin Keller, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden will be the luncheon speaker. Registration for this one-day event at the Westin Denver Downtown Hotel will open later this summer. coloradocountrylife.coop