What members like:

• We found that Grand Valley Power members really appreciate the reliability they experience in the energy that reaches their homes. GVP members haven’t experienced the many sudden and frequent power outages that Xcel customers in our community have been dealing with. For a power provider, it’s important to their customers that the lights come on when they flip the switch and this was far and away the most appreciated part of being within GVP territory.

What members want to see change:

• We also found however that GVP customers often don’t know anything about who the board is or what they do, and why it is important that they participate in these elections.
  
• A frequent comment we heard was that they feel that GVP doesn’t share very much about their decision-making process, and the vast majority of GVP members are unable to attend their monthly meetings that occur at 9am on a Wednesday morning, leaving them feeling like the board doesn’t want to hear from their member-owners and makes decisions in the dark and without input. Members would attend if the meetings were at different, more easily available times.
  
• Most customers feel they pay too much for their energy, and would like to see GVP invest in more local renewable energy to help bring costs down and keep their bills stable.
  
• Members wanted to know more information about the candidates. Currently, GVP only allows candidates to post a short blurb about their educational and professional experience, without allowing them to mention anything about what they want to do on the board if elected. Members feel they don’t know what they stand for, and therefore don’t like to cast an uneducated or uninformed vote. 
  
• Members mentioned wanting a digital option for voting that would make it easier, as opposed to mail-in voting and one-day in-person voting only. 
  
• Members often talked about wanting to see fresh ideas and new measures taken to reduce energy costs and take advantage of new opportunities and funding sources.