Even now, as the Trump Administration attempts to claw back money contracted to local communities as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) under the Biden Administration, we see examples of how these investments bring local, cheap, and clean energy to ratepayers in Western Colorado. A significant example is Mesa County electric co-op Grand Valley Power deciding to switch from Xcel Energy, the electricity wholesaler it has used for years, to Denver-based Guzman Energy.

Grand Valley Power is the oldest rural electric cooperative in Colorado, having first formed in 1936. More than 19,000 customer-owners in Mesa County get their power from Grand Valley Power.

There have been stress points for the Grand Valley Power/Xcel relationship for over a decade, but the decision to find an alternative wholesaler was cemented after Texas faced blackouts during a deep freeze in 2021. As a result of Texas’s crisis, Xcel was forced to buy natural gas at extremely high rates to keep generating power, and it passed the increased costs on to Grand Valley Power and the other utilities it served. Grand Valley Power joined other cooperatives in filing a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which sought to recover nearly $7 million from Xcel. The cooperatives lost that attempt, but the experience (followed by Xcel’s reticence to look at alternative cost-saving measures) was the final straw for the long-time wholesale relationship between the entities.

When Grand Valley Power looked around for other wholesalers, Guzman Energy, based in New Mexico, was already in their backyard – so to speak. Guzman has been providing power to Holy Cross Energy, a rural electric co-op based in Glenwood Springs, since 2019. And the following year, Guzman began supplying energy for the Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA). In particular, the DMEA experience with Guzman was instrumental in eliciting Grand Valley Power’s interest in the relatively young company. In the first year of Guzman providing energy to the DMEA, the co-op’s energy costs decreased by over $2.7 million due largely to stable rates provided by a higher-percentage clean-energy portfolio. And with Guzman-originated energy, DMEA’s ratepayers have seen stable prices, something very, very few energy providers can say nowadays where rate increases are almost the norm.

Perhaps equally importantly, Guzman has looked to local investments to generate much of that power. Just this past year, construction started on the 350-acre Garnet Mesa solar installation outside Delta and as a result of a $13 million IRA grant, Grand Valley Power was expected to be able to draw 26 megawatts of power (or about 40% of Grand Valley Power’s residential electricity needs) starting in 2028. 

Garnet Mesa, which on its own will supply 19,000 homes with power, almost didn’t happen. In 2023, Western Colorado Alliance got involved to organize members to turn out in support and pressure the Delta County Commissioners to approve this critical infrastructure. One of the key provisions that changed minds was the shift from it being a purely solar project to being an agrivoltaics project that involves raising crops/livestock underneath solar panels, creating a dual use for property that remains true to our area’s agricultural heritage. Since the battle to get this project approved, Delta County Commissioners have done a complete 180, now proclaiming this project as a massive boon to the county and something to be proud of. 

Grand Valley Power is expected to save its customers more than $700,000 per year through this new power purchase agreement with Garnet Mesa — IF the Trump Administration permits the contract to go through and unfreezes these funds that rural electric cooperatives are counting on. Guzman also has significant contracts with the Bronco Plains II Energy Center’s wind facility in eastern Colorado and the Panorama Wind Farm in Weld County.

You can read much more about Grand Valley Power’s move away from Xcel to Guzman in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.