FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION:

    DELTA MONTROSE ELECTRIC Tracy Warren

    ASSOCIATION HONORED FOR EFFORTS NRECA Newsroom

    TO BOOST EFFICIENCY February 15 (Noon to 8:00 P.M.)

    February 16-17 (8:00 A.M – 5:00 P.M.)

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NEW ORLEANS, La., FEB. 16, 2009 – The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association

    (NRECA) today honored Delta Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) in Montrose, Colo., with the Association’s Community Service Award for the cooperative’s array of programs aimed at reducing

    consumer-members’ electricity consumption.

    Since 2003 DMEA members have seen their electric rates go up by 50 percent. In response DMEA launched a wide range of energy efficiency programs to help members reduce their monthly bills by reducing their consumption.

    In a long list of programs devoted to efficiency, the following are particularly impressive:

    Working with partners that included Walmart and local chambers of commerce, the association distributed 100,000 compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to members, saving them up to an estimated $4.7 million.

    DMEA created the first geothermal “loop tariff” in the nation, a program in which the electric

    association owns and maintains the loops, just as it maintains poles and wires, but the consumer-member gets the energy savings. DMEA worked with former U.S. Senator Ken Salazar to access Rural Utility Service funds for the program, which has enabled an additional100 members to install the efficient systems.

    In 2008, DMEA became the nation’s first distribution cooperative to become an associate member of the national Alliance to Save Energy. Subsequently, the association facilitated a meeting

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that brought together Colorado’s cooperatives, legislators and local governments to discuss how

    cooperatives can help their members save energy and money.

    DMEA’s commitment to efficiency has translated into a commitment to community. The association provided $25,000 to enable a library to build an efficient new building and partnered with Habitat for Humanity to showcase energy efficient technologies by donating efficient heat pumps and lighting to a Habitat home.

    “As the new Congress and Administration start to focus in earnest on reducing energy usage, they would do well to visit with the leaders at Delta Montrose, who are leading the way,” said Jack Wolfe, President of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Board of Directors.

    The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is the national service organization that represents the nation’s more than 900 private, not-for-profit, consumer-owned electric cooperatives,

    which provide service to 42 million people in 47 states.

    Nearly 9,000 representatives from cooperative electric utilities across the nation are attending the NRECA Annual Meeting, February 15-18, at the New Orleans Convention Center, during which they will set NRECA’s legislative and organizational agenda for 2009. In addition to considering and acting upon policy resolutions, delegates receive reports from NRECA officials, hear addresses by key public figures and business experts, and attend panel sessions on major issues affecting electric cooperatives and their consumer owners.

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