Living in the Rocky Mountains is good for the soul. Breathtaking views and landscapes surround us and we share this place with extraordinary wildlife. These privileges come with unique challenges. Getting electricity to everyone in the Estes Park Power & Communications service area is a massive undertaking. Our location makes maintaining a reliable electric grid no easy feat. The weather can be extreme. Fierce windstorms and heavy spring snowstorms topple trees like dominoes, and power poles face the same risk. Our dedicated crews work daily to prevent those outages. But when they happen, they’re heading your way to get your lights back on no matter what conditions they will face or where you are located within our 350 square-mile service area.
Reliable power is essential for every aspect of modern life in the Rocky Mountains, supporting homes, businesses, critical infrastructure, transportation, and recreation. The tourism industry is vital to our economy, and it depends heavily on a stable power supply for hotels, restaurants, shops and services.
Wildfire risk is on the rise everywhere. Changing environmental factors mean it takes less to ignite a fire. For us to keep sending electricity to homes, we must continue modernizing our electric distribution system to reduce those risks. We are taking proactive steps, securing grants to leverage our budget (the revenue from customers’ electric payments), cooperating with other utilities to reduce costs, and maximizing the voter-approved 1A sales tax revenues, approximately $250,000 annually, to replace bare wire lines with durable tree cable…