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CRSP Power Customers
There are approximately 183 CRSP customers who purchase wholesale electricity from CRSP-MC. Electrical power from the CRSP generally serves the rural areas and small towns of the Rocky Mountain, Colorado Plateau, and Great Basin regions of the West. The CRSP marketing area includes parts of the states of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nebraska.
CRSP power customers are: 1) small and medium-sized towns that operate publicly owned electrical systems, 2) irrigation cooperatives and water conservation districts, 3) rural electrical associations or generation and transmission co-operatives who are wholesalers to these associations, 4) federal facilities such as Air Force Bases, 5) universities and other state agencies, and 6) Native American tribes.
For many of the CRSP customers that serve rural areas, the price these customers pay for the CRSP electrical power is less than the wholesale market price. However, these customers serve retail load in rural areas, where the cost to provide electrical service is high. Homes, farms and other electrical connections are spread out, so that a significant transmission line and electrical generation investment has to be repaid by fewer retail customers. Generally, this is why private electrical suppliers choose not to extend their service to these areas and why the Rural Electrification Administration was set up: to “electrify” the rural areas of the nation. The retail prices charged by CRSP customers to end users are usually higher than adjacent urban areas. Moreover, these rural areas and the tribal reservations are usually characterized by lower than average incomes and higher incidences of poverty.
Power Customers Representation in the Adaptive Management Program
The Grand Canyon Protection Act provides for representation of customers who purchased federal hydropower from the CRSP. Currently, the customers are represented by two entities, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and the Colorado River Energy Distributors Association (CREDA). UAMPS is a joint action agency of the State of Utah, and CREDA is a non-profit association whose members represent the majority of the CRSP power customers in six states. UAMPS and CREDA representatives participate in all aspects of the AMP. CREDA’s mission is to “preserve and enhance the availability, affordability and value of the CRSP facilities, while promoting responsible stewardship of the Colorado River system”. CREDA was formed in 1978.
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