Orcas Power & Light Cooperative

Earlier this year, a volunteer group of OPALCO members built a new green power program in support of local renewable energy—electricity generated by our fellow co-op members and interconnected to OPALCO’s distribution system. OPALCO members contribute to the MORE (Member Owned Renewable Energy) Program with voluntary donations on their monthly bills to fund incentive payments… READ MORE »

All of San Juan County will experience a planned power outage beginning at 11:00 pm on Thursday, September 15th and ending by 6:00 am on Friday, September 16th. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is conducting this outage event in their substation in Anacortes, which is the point of delivery for power in the San Juan Islands…. READ MORE »

This afternoon at approximately 2:15 pm, OPALCO linemen were performing routine maintenance in an underground vault located by the County Sheriff’s office on Mt. Baker Road when an equipment failure caused a fault and brief outage. Because the line crew was working in close proximity to the equipment failure, medical personnel were called to the… READ MORE »

All of San Juan County will experience a planned power outage beginning at 11:00 pm on Thursday, September 15th and ending by 6:00 am on Friday, September 16th. This maintenance outage is mandated by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). OPALCO crews will take advantage of this opportunity to conduct inspection and maintenance work… READ MORE »

Congratulations to the 17 successful finishers of OPALCO’s 2011 Move It! & Lose It! Challenge! David Harold of Friday Harbor was the “Big Loser” this year with a total weight loss of 13.94%. Team “Diet Pirates” of Eastsound, including Suzanne & John Olson and Anne Bertino, won the team competition with a combined weight loss of 9.13%…. READ MORE »

Orcas Power & Light Cooperative has partnered with Islanders Bank to bring energy efficiency tools and savings to islanders in San Juan County. OPALCO members can schedule a Home Snapshot Energy Assessment, get an expert report on their home’s systems and efficiency and then fund the home improvement projects through Islanders Bank. According to the Northwest Power… READ MORE »

On June 16th, the OPALCO Board of Directors voted to change the Co-op bylaws to remove the option of early capital credit retirement for members who leave the service area and to specify that operating margins only will be allocated to capital credits at the close of each financial year. What are capital credits? OPALCO is a… READ MORE »

A TEAM of linemen from Eastsound repaired an underwater cable that failed in Cascade Lake on Sunday, May 15th. Power was quickly rerouted from the Olga substation to serve those affected by the outage, which last about two hours. After surveying the situation on Sunday, the crew arrived Monday morning to tackle the problem. Steve… READ MORE »

THREE local students were presented with the first annual Nourdine Jensen Cooperative Youth Scholarship awards at the OPALCO annual meeting on May 14th. The students are: Connar Smith of Friday Harbor High School, Samantha Swanson of Spring Street International School (and Lopez Island) and Susanne Mietzner of Orcas High School. The awards, including a $500 scholarship and… READ MORE »

The WSF Elwha was chock-full of energy superheroes on Saturday: 325 people attended the 74th Annual Meeting of Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO). It was an action-packed morning of good friends, good food and good fun punctuated with the unveiling of several new programs to benefit OPALCO members including: the Together We Save energy efficiency campaign, which puts… READ MORE »