Arkansas River Power Authority
P.O. Box 70, Lamar, Colorado, United States

The Arkansas River Power Authority (ARPA) supplies reliable wholesale electric power to the communities of Holly, La Junta, Lamar, Las Animas, Springfield and Trinidad. Unlike larger, investor-owned utilities, ARPA was formed and is owned by the communities it serves.

Our Mission

To promote the long-term economic well being of our municipal members and their consumers by providing a dependable and competitively priced supply of wholesale electric power in an environmentally sound manner.

Location

ARPA is headquartered in Lamar. We own electric emergency backup generation facilities in Trinidad and Holly, and wind turbines in Prowers and Baca Counties.

ARPA provides an essential service in southeast Colorado by purchasing and generating competitively priced electricity. We sell wholesale electricity to our member communities of Holly, La Junta, Lamar, Las Animas, Springfield and Trinidad.

Where ARPA Gets Electricity

Federal Hydropower

ARPA purchases hydropower, or generation of electricity using flowing water which supplies about 20 percent of its members’ energy. Hydropower is purchased from Western Area Power Administration, an agency of  the U.S. Department of Energy and supplies about 20 percent of its members’ energy.

Renewable Energy

Although not mandated by Colorado’s renewable energy laws by virtue of its municipal utility status, ARPA is nevertheless committed to finding new sustainable sources of electricity.  Currently, ARPA generates and purchases wind power, which supplies about 7 percent of its members’ electric requirements and it obtains about 20 percent of its needs from renewable hydropower resources.

Supplemental Power Purchases

The Lamar Repowering Project was built to provide the majority of the electricity for ARPA communities — about 70 percent – however, due to the boiler’s inability to meet emission requirements, ARPA entered into a purchase power agreement that supplies power needs over and above the federal hydropower and renewable energy in ARPA’s power supply portfolio.

Getting Power to our Members

ARPA’s wholesale electricity travels to members via transmission lines owned by third parties. The member municipalities set their own retail rates that are then applied to their customers. Once power arrives in each community, ARPA’s member municipally owned electric systems distribute it to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Benefits of ARPA

Southeast Colorado sits far from other generation sources. Unlike communities that rely on contracts with larger, investor-owned utilities, ARPA communities know where their power is coming from for decades to come. Other benefits to our members include:

• Stable Prices: Regional power supply prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. Our portfolio of energy has stable prices and competitive rates for southeastern Colorado.
• Locally-managed and controlled: Member communities direct our governing board, made up of officials from every community. Business is conducted in meetings open to the public.
• Economic development: Local utility payments to city general funds far exceed fees paid by investor-owned utilities in the towns and cities they serve. Local utilities help build parks, pools and community centers.
• Mutual aid: Our members help each other restore power after natural disasters.

Lamar Repowering Project Plant Studies

The Arkansas River Power Authority (ARPA) is currently re-evaluating its long-term options for the Lamar Repowering Project to determine how to best meet its members’ future energy needs. The boiler for the coal-fired power plant has not been able to comply with its air emissions guarantees, and the plant has been maintained off-line since late 2011. ARPA has been working with Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), the boiler manufacturer, to resolve issues related to the boiler’s inability to meet air emissions guarantees. However, B&W has refused to fund the installation of its proposed modifications to the boiler, and could not guarantee that those modifications would resolve the emissions issues. In February, ARPA filed a lawsuit for damages against B&W.

ARPA has commissioned studies with third-party experts regarding the economics of the facility given these recent developments. These studies have shown that the cost of making the proposed modifications to the plant, with no guarantee that they would bring the plant into full compliance, would result in higher rates for the ARPA members over the next several years. Furthermore, the proposed modifications would increase the operating costs for the plant, making the power produced from it more expensive and less competitive should the plant be placed back on-line in the future.