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For immediate release: 10:00 AM – Friday, November 16, 2018  

San Isabel Electric is turning 80 years old on Wednesday, November 21. To include members in our 80th celebration, San Isabel Electric will be giving away $80 bill credits to 80 members in 2019.

Beginning with the November utility bills, any San Isabel Electric member that pays their power bill in full on or before the due date online with SmartHub, or with the SmartHub mobile app in 2019, will be entered in the $80 bill credit contest. The contest will begin November 28, 2018 when November utility bills go out. The first bill credit recipients will be drawn on December 18. Between six and seven winners will be drawn at random, monthly, and announced on the $80 bill credit for 80 members webpage, siea.com/80. The contest is open only to San Isabel Electric members and members are only allowed one entry per month.

SmartHub is San Isabel Electric’s account management tool. It’s available online or as a mobile app for both Apple and Android devices. Printable and video how-to tutorials for how to download and use SmartHub are available on the $80 for 80 members 80th anniversary webpage, siea.com/80.

“What we’ve been doing for the last 80 years is important, but we realize what’s more important is what we’re doing today. SmartHub is one of the many ways we’re bringing modern technology to our members to make their lives easier and save them time and money,” General Manager Reg Rudolph said.

San Isabel Electric rolled out the SmartHub app in 2015. Despite high member satisfaction with SmartHub, in October 2018, less than four percent of San Isabel members paid their electric bill online with SmartHub or with the SmartHub mobile app.

“The members that are using SmartHub just love it. SmartHub is the most convenient, fast, easy tool. It makes it so easy to manage your bills, your energy usage, to get in touch with the co-op and you can also check to see if you’re in an outage,” Billing and Member Services Manager Naomi Simmons said.

San Isabel Electric was founded by a small group of rural neighbors in Beulah, Colorado. The investor-owned utilities did not want to make investments in rural areas because the costs would be too high and their profits too low. People living in those rural areas were left without electricity, because there weren’t enough people to serve. They weren’t worth it to the investor-owned utilities.  

“Today, San Isabel Electric only has about five meters per mile and each and every member are absolutely worth it, because the most important part of San Isabel Electric is the people in it,” Rudolph said.

Since its inception the cooperative has been governed and operated by its members, the people who use the power the cooperative provides.

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As a not-for-profit cooperative utility, San Isabel Electric provides affordable, reliable electricity with exceptional service to communities throughout southern Colorado. Serving nearly 20,000 Member-owners and 24,000 meters, San Isabel Electric has been keeping the lights on since 1938. We don’t just serve communities. We are part of communities.