Kristen Bertuglia
For the past nine years, it has been my honor to serve you on the Holy Cross Energy Board. Thanks to the hard work of the Holy Cross community, we’re fulfilling our vision of leading the responsible transition to the clean energy future. Our clean energy purchases have saved our members $16 million in the last 18 months, while keeping electric rates among the lowest in the state, maintaining a strong financial position, and returning $4.5 million to you in member equity. With an excellent safety record and outstanding reliability, HCE is a model utility, awarded the 2020 SEPA Utility of the Year.
In my role as Strategic Issues Committee Chair, I’ve helped guide Holy Cross towards our industry-leading goals. We are on track to achieve 70% renewable energy in two years without increasing power costs and to attain 100% by 2030. We’re reinvesting in grid stability and local support, including wildfire resilience, and COVID financial assistance for members. This progress comes in a year of wildfires, pandemic disruptions, and the loss of our beloved friend and Director, Adam Palmer, whose vision was pivotal in establishing HCE as a national leader.
As Vail’s Environmental Sustainability Director and Colorado Communities for Climate Action Chair, I am committed to tackling the opportunities of a fast-changing energy market, protecting our environment and enhancing our economy. Together, we’re making history by writing the future of member-driven, innovative, and transparent governance, and I respectfully ask for your vote to allow me to continue this work.
Candidate Q&A
Why do you want serve as Board member of Holy Cross Energy?
It is so important to me to continue to serve on the Holy Cross Board because I am incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made over the past decade, and we are now at a pivotal point in history. We have recently adopted an innovative and industry-leading strategic plan that I am dedicated to seeing through. We are well on our way to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2030, through a combination of proactive power supply contracts and new large-scale wind and solar projects, Holy Cross is proving that leading the charge to reduce carbon pollution can save members money, keep the lights on and the rates low, while protecting the environment. We’ve also ensured a safe working environment, with zero recordable incidences in 2020, and 99.9% reliability.
I love engaging with our diverse membership and supporting programs that help working families; from our broadband expansion to our rebates for energy efficiency, battery storage, electric vehicle charging stations, leading-edge research and microgrid initiatives like the Basalt Vista affordable housing project, we are leading with our members’ quality of life at the forefront of our minds. I am so excited about the future of Holy Cross; our ambitious 2021 work plans include protecting our system from wildfire and increasing cybersecurity, and new work in diversity and underserved member sectors. Within the Holy Cross family, we are focused on continuous improvement, always providing safe, reliable power, in a not-for-profit model, where profits are returned to our members, and I am honored to be a part of this organization.
What do you think are the main opportunities and challenges facing Holy Cross Energy in the next 5 years?
I believe that the challenges and opportunities we face in this moment are the same: broadly speaking, the future of the rapidly changing business model of the utility industry. Gone are the days of a standard one-source power contract. We are now headed toward the future of a potential service-based utility provider with much broader reach. We now add over 2 MW of distributed energy (small rooftop solar systems) to our grid each year. We employ large scale supplies of wind, solar, biomass, methane and hydro power with complex and flexible rate design to encourage efficient use of energy and opportunity for members to save money. Within the future construct of the evolving business model however, there are challenges related to a changing global environment, including cybersecurity, climate change impacts, increasing distributed energy resources, new technology like battery storage, population growth and the changing needs of a diverse membership.
Fortunately, because of the responsible, strategic and proactive decision-making of my fellow board members, myself, and our talented staff, Holy Cross is well positioned to stay relevant, meet the needs of our members, decarbonize our electricity supply, and adjust to, and be proactive on upcoming legislation that will affect our industry. We will be faced with new regulations and potential Community Choice Aggregation, the formation of local energy markets,(Regional Transmission Organizations RTOs), and we will have the opportunity to expand consumer options as well as job creation as we electrify our economy.
How do you believe you can contribute to the Board and our co-op?
Over the past nine years of service on the Holy Cross Board I have devoted my time to gaining a deep understanding of the utility industry, national and local policy, power supply, rate design, energy efficiency, organizational risks and opportunities, climate impacts, and our diverse and dynamic members. My position on the Holy Cross Board is one I take very seriously. We are a highly functioning board of dedicated community members who work incredibly well together, and I believe the future of our organization, our communities’ ability to reach their clean energy goals, and our quality of life depend upon consistent, competent leadership.
Along with my fellow directors, I am so proud to say that our solid decision making has saved our members millions and protected our environment by reaching over 50% renewable energy in the last year, on track to hit 70% in two years, and 100% by 2030.
In my 20+ year career, currently the Director of the Environmental Sustainability Department at the Town of Vail, I am well-versed in policymaking, strategic planning, governance, teamwork, and leadership. I am a current board member of Walking Mountains Science Center, the Institute for Environmental Solutions, and Eagle County’s Climate Action Collaborative. I am also a member of the Eagle County Community Wildlife Roundtable and the Western Adaptation Alliance and participate actively with the Colorado and National Rural Electric Associations. I know what it takes to lead with a balanced perspective, and what the future requires of us. My family and I feel so fortunate to call the Eagle Valley home, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to represent you. I am committed to seeing through the strategic vision of leading the responsible transition to the clean energy future and I would be honored to be entrusted to continue forward.