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Welcome to United’s PowerTalk podcast, a production of United Cooperative Services. We’re a distribution co-op serving 79,000 members, 110,000 meters and more than 34,000 internet subscribers! Tune in to each episode to hear stories about service, power, and the people working behind the scenes to provide our membership with exceptional service and value. Learn more about the cooperative and how we serve our community in North Texas at ucs.net.
John Davis:
They're back. Members, get your red hot United Community Solar
subscriptions while they
last. That's right. Just in time for co-op month in October,
United's members can again sign up for a slice of solar
generated electricity that will grant them savings on their
energy bills.
Hello and welcome to United's PowerTalk.
I'm John Davis, and for those of you joining us for the first
time,
welcome. If you're joining us again,
we're glad to have you back.
United's Power Talk is your cooperative's new podcast where we
tell you stories of service,
power and the people behind it all.
I invite you to join us each time to learn more about the people
at your co-op and how we deliver exceptional service and value
each day in both electricity and high speed internet.
In this episode, we're talking with Blake Beavers,
United's chief membership services officer about the newly
reopened community solar option.
The co-op recently acquired a new solar generation facility,
and members can again start signing up for subscriptions,
and those subscriptions are free.
Blake, thank you very much for joining me today.
Blake Beavers:
Well, thanks for having me, John. I'm really excited to share the
good news.
John Davis:
So let's start with the news first that the community solar
project is back.
Now, how did this come about?
Blake Beavers:
So it's been a journey. So whenever we ran out of subscriptions,
we've been looking at actually trying to expand the community
solar program. The issue was back in 2022-2021 time frame,
the price of solar went up tremendously.
And this type of program is very cost sensitive.
And so whatever we do, any new capacity,
new solar we have is going to impact the overall portfolio.
John Davis:
Right. And you want to keep it as affordable as possible for
members.
Blake Beavers:
Exactly. So we're trying to make sure there's no impact to the
existing participants in the program.
So any type of new solar we bring in is very sensitive from the
standpoint we want to make sure we're receiving the same savings
as the existing program.
John Davis:
Okay.
Blake Beavers:
So we just got to a point where we've actually been monitoring
the market for the last five years through RFPs and talking and
having conversations with market participants.
And the last RFP we sent out, which was an objective from 2025,
we got some favorable pricing.
And we thought, okay, it's time to proceed with this.
And so, that's how we came about.
John Davis:
Okay, okay. Well, tell me about this new facility.
How large is it? Where is it located?
Blake Beavers:
Yeah. So the new facility, it's actually it's not in our
territory.
We have two that are in our territory that we buy 100% of the
output from.
This one is actually next to Paris,
Texas.
The overall size of the project is 200MW.
But our portion that we have a contract or a power purchase
agreement for is about 40MW.
John Davis:
Like the other facility, right?
Blake Beavers:
That's correct.
John Davis:
Okay.
Blake Beavers:
That's correct. So we get 40MW from the overall 200MW that we are
in contract.
John Davis:
With a facility that large, how many subscriptions will be
available to United members,
and what size subscriptions will be offered to them?
Blake Beavers:
So as I mentioned, our power purchase agreement is for 40MW.
Now we're only going to use 20MW of that for our community solar
program right now.
John Davis:
Okay.
Blake Beavers:
The other 20 is just going to roll into our power supply
portfolio.
But that 20MW, that'll give us about 10,000,
2kW subscriptions.
But we do have a waiting list. So we have to take care of that
waiting list first.
And that would, after the waiting list, we should have about
8,400 subscriptions
available to the membership.
John Davis:
That's a good amount.
Blake Beavers:
Yeah.
John Davis:
That's a good amount.
Blake Beavers:
It is.
John Davis:
Now, some members may want to know why they can't have all of
their electricity come from the solar facility.
Can you explain why United restricts the number of subscriptions
per per member?
Blake Beavers:
Yeah. So we're trying to maximize the amount of members that can
participate in this program.
And so that's why we limit it to 2kW subscriptions.
Now, we do allow members to get two subscriptions.
So 4kW total if they qualify. So trying to maximize the program
with the amount of members that can participate.
But we do allow again multiple subscriptions.
John Davis:
What qualifies a member to get one subscription or two
subscriptions?
Blake Beavers:
That's a good question, John. So for a member to qualify for one
subscription,
their annual average usage has to be above 500 kilowatt hours.
Now, if they want two subscriptions or 4kW total,
their annual average usage has to be above 1,000 kilowatt hours.
John Davis:
Okay, let's get into the nuts and bolts of the program a little
bit.
Let's talk about maybe how it works.
Let's take the members from getting a subscription to getting the
bill,
kind of lay it out for them. So where do they sign up all the way
to where they can expect to see the savings
on an average bill?
Blake Beavers:
Yeah. So the goal of this program,
and we wanted to make it as simple as possible for the members.
It has to be simple, and I think we accomplished that.
So all you have to do, you can either contact an MSR or you can
actually go on the website and complete a form,
and we can enroll you in the program.
So once we get that information,
one of our MSRs or somebody on staff will actually look at your
usage and qualify you. And they'll roll you on the on either a
2kW subscription or two 2kW subscriptions.
Now, our members right now that are enrolled in the program,
last year,
they saw an average monthly savings of about $22 a month.
John Davis:
Wow. That's pretty good.
Blake Beavers:
That's pretty substantial. It's a good savings.
John Davis:
So that's $240 a year.
Blake Beavers:
Roughly. Yeah.
John Davis:
So that's one month of groceries,
maybe.
Blake Beavers:
There you go. There you go.
John Davis:
Depending for now, maybe depending on how big your family is.
Do members have to install anything on their home to do this?
Blake Beavers:
No, no. As I mentioned, we're trying to make this as easy as
possible,
so no equipment on the member's side.
We do everything. That's the beauty of this program is that
United has done everything.
We've now got the actual solar PPA.
We're buying it. So all we're doing is changing your bill
structure,
and you'll see it on your bill,
and you'll see the savings.
John Davis:
Okay. Let's talk about who qualifies.
Is this a residential program? Is this for businesses?
And what about people who move from one house to another house in
the service territory?
Can they take their subscriptions with them,
for example?
Blake Beavers:
So right now the program is for our single phase rate class.
Now with the new capacity, it gives us opportunities to actually
look at expanding it to other rate classes.
But right now, it's for single phase rate class.
Now for members that are moving within our territory,
so if you move from a residence that we currently serve to a
residence that we will serve, you can transfer it.
Now, of course, if you move outside the territory,
you know we're not going to serve you. I'm sorry.
John Davis:
You're going to have to –
Blake Beavers:
You have other issues.
John Davis:
Right, right, right. What about people who are building a new
house?
How does that work for them?
Blake Beavers:
Yeah, that's a good question. If you're building a house,
of course, if it's a brand new house, you're not going to have a
year's worth of usage history to qualify.
If you, you know, one subscription or two subscriptions.
What we'll do on the front end,
we'll probably have to ask a few more questions just to get a
good feel for kind of what your expectations of your usage will
look like:
the size of the house, what kind of equipment,
those kind of questions. And then from there, we can develop some
kind of baseline and put you in the,
you know, the right subscription level.
John Davis:
Okay. Once you qualify, you've gone through the steps,
and now you've got it.
What kind of commitment does a member have to this program?
Are members locked in? How does that work?
Blake Beavers:
This is not a contract. This is not an agreement.
John Davis:
Kind of like internet.
Blake Beavers:
Yeah, yeah. So they can they can they can participate in a few
months, and then get out. I don't know why they would want to do
that, especially when you're seeing $22 a month of savings from
this program.
It's basically free money, but they can come and go.
The only thing at risk though, if you do sign up and then you
actually get out of the program,
if we run out of subscriptions. it's –
John Davis:
It's a waiting game.
Blake Beavers:
It's a waiting game. Exactly.
John Davis:
Like we had a waiting list before.
Blake Beavers:
Exactly.
John Davis:
And that stacked up pretty deep.
Blake Beavers:
Yep. So if you get out of the program, and you try to get back
in. If we have no
subscriptions, I'm sorry.
John Davis:
And so the backlog that we once had is going to be subscribed.
And you said there's going to be about 8,400 slots left for –.
Blake Beavers:
After, yeah. After satisfying the waiting list.
So the waiting list, if you look at it right now,
we have about 1,100 members on the waiting list.
And so that equates to about 1,600 subscriptions.
So after we satisfy the waiting list, we'll have those 8,400
available to the rest of the single
phase rate class.
John Davis:
Excellent. How many other co-ops do this?
Is this a popular thing that's going on?
Or is this something that United's kind of special?
Blake Beavers:
You know, the structure that we have for our community solar
program is pretty special.
Now there's different types of structures. You'll see around the
around the country. The way we do it is very special.
I haven't really seen a structure like this,
and the savings we're seeing for our members too.
John Davis:
Right.
Blake Beavers:
It's very unique.
John Davis:
Well, I like you said, I don't know why anybody would want to get
off of this thing once
they got on to it. Right.
Blake Beavers:
Exactly. It's too good to be true.
John Davis:
Well, that's about all the time we have for this episode. But
before we leave, is there anything else you'd like to add? Is
there anything else members need to know about getting onto this
program before it's too late?
Blake Beavers:
Just hurry up and call one of our MSRs and talk to us or sign up
online.
John Davis:
Blake, thank you very much for talking to us today about United
Solar Solution on PowerTalk.
Well, that's about all the time we have for this episode.
And remember, you can always read more about this story in the
October issue of Texas Co-op Power Magazine,
or search United Community Solar at ucs.net.
Thank you for taking the time to join us here today on United's
PowerTalk.
We'll see you again next time.