OPALCO does not comment on active legal matters, but some misinformation in a recent King 5 article needs to be addressed. The pole site in question was on the property mentioned, with the previous owner’s permission, prior to the current owners’ purchase of the land….

Enter OPALCO’s co-op member photo contest or grand prize giveaway Every year in October, cooperatives around the nation celebrate National Cooperative Month. OPALCO, San Juan County’s local not-for-profit cooperative utility, is spending this month  celebrating co-op…

This summer, OPALCO replaced a transformer installed in 1970 . The new transformer includes more capacity for the expected growth in electricity use in the coming decades. This equipment takes high-voltage electricity and steps it down to a smaller voltage to deliver…

In July the OPALCO leadership team hosted an open house with co-op members. About 20 islanders gathered with some of the OPALCO board and leadership team to discuss a wide variety of topics. Members had thoughtful comments on OPALCO power rates, energy conservation,…

Tuesday July 28 at 12:40 PM: All power is restored. The crews continue to investigate the cause of the outage this morning. Initially all of San Juan County except Lopez was without power due to a trip on the BPA system. Using our redundant power feeds most of the…

In early July, six San Juan County students proudly represented Orcas Power and Light Cooperative (OPALCO) at the 2026 Idaho Consumer-Owned Utilities Association (ICUA) Youth Rally as part of the Nourdine Jensen Cooperative Youth Scholarship Program. The Nourdine…

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 OPALCO was notified that they were granted the Conditional Use Permit for the Decatur  Island Solar Expansion Project. The Decatur Island Solar Expansion project is a proposed ~1.6 MW AC  Community Solar project. It’s adjacent to OPALCO’s…

On Thursday, May 7, OPALCO held their virtual Annual Business Meeting, where the meeting  minutes from the 2025 Annual Meeting were approved and the election results were  announced. Ray Glaze of the OPALCO Election and Governance Committee announced the  results of…

The OPALCO Board held a special board meeting on Tuesday, April 21 to discuss the Decatur Community Solar project and determine next steps. In a 5-2 vote, the OPALCO Board approved a motion to proceed with the project and not modify the Native Growth Area Covenant….