Building Our Future, Inspired by Our Past

In 2022, your elected Board of Directors continued to guide CORE’s leadership in building the electric cooperative of the future.

We made several critical decisions as a board, including:

1) Approval of the return of $2.5 million in capital credits to members. In the last decade, CORE has returned more than $120 million in capital credits and will continue to do so when the cooperative’s financial position allows.

2) Enacting changes to the cooperative’s rates and regulations to respond to operating costs and the extended outage of the Comanche Unit 3 coal-fired power plant. Base rates for electric service increased by an average of 6%, but we avoided the larger increases imposed by many other Colorado utilities. The Board worked closely with leadership to streamline operations and cut costs to minimize the impact on your rates.

3) Oversight of the legal dispute with Xcel Energy regarding its mismanagement of Comanche Unit 3.

4) Giving to and partnering with local nonprofits and other community organizations. Over $500,000 goes into our communities annually through board-recommended and approved causes.

5) Last, but certainly not least, the approval of a landmark wholesale power provider agreement with Invenergy. This partnership was the most responsible solution to meet our members’ energy needs and the State of Colorado’s carbon emission goals.

On behalf of my fellow directors, we appreciate your support and value you as members of our cooperative.

2022 was a pivotal year for CORE, with major new initiatives to launch CORE’s future as a premier energy provider.

Our foundation was solid from 84 years of sound leadership and the tireless work of our exceptional employees. But the electric industry is on the threshold of transformation, and it was time to construct innovative ways of serving our members.

New power supply agreements with Invenergy are the cornerstone for CORE’s future as the cleanest, most reliable, most affordable electric company in Colorado, and signal our transformation into a fully independent electric utility with control of our power supply future. With this partnership, CORE will exceed Colorado’s objective of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2030, create more flexibility to implement additional battery storage and other technologies, and stabilize CORE’s costs to keep members’ rates low.

In 2022 we launched a multi-year project to bring CORE’s numerous complex systems into an Advanced Distribution Management System, or ADMS. The system will improve reliability and support the evolving energy needs of our members.

CORE saw continued extraordinary growth in 2022 and, with it, the need to bolster our systems to meet new member demand. Numerous improvement projects were started, continued or completed in 2022. We also began building new digital tools that give our members greater control over energy usage and payments.

2022 is just the start. We will continue building a cooperative that connects our lives and communities through choice and innovation. We thank you for your membership and look forward to serving you in 2023 and beyond.

The cooperative recorded a net margin of $15.8 million in 2022, as compared to a $16.3 million margin in 2021.

Operating revenue increased 4% while power costs increased 9%, and operating and maintenance expenses were up 22% in 2022.

The cooperative recognized a combined $15.1 million in 2022 for the remaining costs associated with the full-year 2020 Comanche Unit 3 outage, as well as costs associated with a significant unplanned outage in early 2022. Referred to as “regulatory balancing,” this accounting treatment allows the cooperative to record outage expenses over a three-year period and minimize the extraordinary effect of outages in a single year, lessening the impact to our members.

Depreciation and taxes were lower in 2022 by $16.7 million. Net utility plant assets grew by 0.4%. In 2021 the cooperative recorded accelerated depreciation on several asset classes, while in 2022 the cooperative received a favorable reduction in property taxes. The cooperative saw growth in its customer base with the addition of 4,552 active services in 2022.

Interest expense on long-term borrowings increased by 2.52% from the prior year. The cooperative’s unadjusted debt service coverage metric improved, primarily due to increased revenues in 2022. The equity-to-assets ratio increased from 29.64% to 30.56%. The ratio of debt to earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA) increased to 7.7 to 1 from 7.3 to 1 in 2021.