Federal hydropower serves more customers in three Midwestern states

CONTACT: Lisa Meiman, [email protected], 720.962.7411

LAKEWOOD, Colorado - Eleven municipalities in Kansas and Nebraska and one military installation in Colorado have been approved to receive at-cost federal hydropower from Western Area Power Administration's Loveland Area Projects starting Oct. 1, 2024.

It is the largest addition of WAPA customers since the remarketing of Hoover Dam hydropower in 2017.

"Many of the new customers, like our current customers, are small rural entities. Having access to the affordable hydropower resource and transmission services can be a real benefit," said WAPA Contracts and Energy Services Manager Parker Wicks. "The federal hydropower allocation gives them access to an at-cost, reliable, clean energy source, and our long-term contracts assure that they will have access to this resource for a long time."

The new customers join 124 existing entities who have renewed firm electric service contracts for LAP hydropower starting Oct. 1, 2024. Under those contracts, customers will receive allocations of energy from 20 federal Bureau of Reclamation hydroelectric facilities in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado for 30 years.

The new customers include nine Kansas municipalities, two Nebraska municipalities and a U.S. Space Force base:

Colorado

Buckley Space Force Base

Kansas

City of Alma

City of Blue Mound

City of Elwood

City of Luray

City of Montezuma

City of Morrill

City of Prescott

City of Robinson

City of Wathena

Nebraska

Village of Paxton

Village of Trenton

In total, the new customers will receive 11,302,438 kilowatt-hours of energy in the summer season (April - September) and 9,106,151 kWh in the winter season (October - March). Each new customer will receive a proportional allocation based on their seasonal demand. To put these amounts in perspective, the average American household uses about 10,715 kWh each year.

To begin receiving federal hydropower in October 2024, the new customers will need to sign a power contract by Dec. 31. Then, they will need to get transmission arrangements in place by summer 2024.

The opportunity to receive new allocations of hydropower arose from a scheduled resource pool under LAP's current contract terms. The resource pool, which occurs every 10 years, withdraws up to 1% of the marketable hydropower resource from existing customers and makes it available to new customers through a public process.

"WAPA is mandated to ensure the most widespread use of federal hydropower at lowest rates possible consistent with sound business practices. Resource pools are common ways to meet that requirement," said Wicks. "We have long contracts so resource pools give an opportunity for new preference entities to apply for the benefits of federal hydropower over the course of these long timeframes."

Entities eligible to apply for new hydropower allocations must be a municipality, rural electric cooperative, irrigation district, public utility district, Native American Tribe or federal or state agency in the designated project area that does not currently receive a federal hydropower allocation. With the exception of Tribes, all entities must also be able to receive the power from WAPA through the power grid.

The next Loveland Area Projects resource pool is scheduled for 2034. The application process would begin 2-3 years before then and would be advertised in the Federal Register. To learn more about this resource pool, visit the Loveland Area Projects 2025 Resource Pool webpage.

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About WAPA: Western Area Power Administration annually markets and transmits more than 28,000 gigawatt-hours of clean, renewable power from 57 federal hydroelectric powerplants owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and International Boundary and Water Commission in 15 western and central states. It is part of the Department of Energy. Follow us on Twitter @WesternAreaPowr or visit the website at www.wapa.gov​.