Who is eligible to attend?

High school sophomores and juniors are eligible to attend as long as their parents or legal guardians receive power from ICUA or UAMPS member utilities. 

Los Alamos DPU is a UAMPS member utility provider.

What about the essay?

UAMPS is sponsoring 4 students to attend the youth rally who will be selected based on essays submitted to UAMPS member utilities. Sponsorship will be awarded to essay contest winners who desire to learn more about the electric utility industry and who plan to attend a post-secondary educational institution.

In Los Alamos, a panel of judges from DPU will read, review and score submissions. The top scoring essay will be forwarded to UAMPS for sponsorship consideration. 

Essay entries should interpret one or more aspects of the theme “Consumer-Owned Utilities: How Your Public Power Utility Benefits Your Community.” Judges will look for originality and the relevance of the theme to the writer and his/her consumer-owned utility.  

Essays must be original, 500-750 words in length, typed and double-spaced. They must include a cover page with the writer’s name, year in school (sophomore or junior) and address.

The official guidelines and entry form can be found at the bottom of this web page.

How does Los Alamos DPU fit in?

The DPU is a member of UAMPS, a joint-action governmental agency providing energy services to its 50 community-owned power system members located throughout the intermountain western states. UAMPS is working to provide the next generation of nuclear reactors at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in eastern Idaho.
 
UAMPS is heading up the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) which proposes a 462-megawatt nuclear electric generation facility to be constructed at INL. The facility will utilize small modular reactor (SMR) technology developed by NuScale Power. The DPU is subscribed to receive 1.8 megawatts once the future facility goes online.

What do the sponsorships include?

The UAMPS sponsorships will cover all expenses to attend the ICUA Youth Rally, including transportation between Caldwell, Idaho, and Salt Lake City, lodging, meals and activities. Sponsorship awardees will be responsible for transportation between their homes and Salt Lake City.

Tell me about the scholarship opportunity

Students who are awarded UAMPS Sponsorships through the essay contest will also receive $500 college scholarships. Additionally, while at the ICUA Youth Rally, youth will work in teams to solve business challenges and political issues. They will be evaluated on class engagement, participation, teamwork, leadership and overcoming obstacles. Scholarships will be based on these evaluations.

What is the submission timeline?

The DPU will accept essays until April 21, 2023. The top local essay will be forwarded to UAMPS no later than May 5, 2023. The UAMPS executive committee will announce its top four essay winners (sponsorship recipients) by May 19, 2023.

The official guidelines and entry form can be found at the bottom of this web page. Submissions should be addressed to the Board of Public Utilities at the address below. They may be mailed or hand-delivered. 

Board of Public Utilities
Los Alamos County
1000 Central Ave. Suite 130
Los Alamos, NM 87544

Helpful abbreviations

Resources

Los Alamos DPU:   www.ladpu.com/DPU

UAMPS:   www.uamps.com

American Public Power Association:   www.publicpower.org

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association:   www.nreca.org

ICUA Youth Rally:   www.icua.coop/icua-events/icua-youth-rally/

ICUA Youth Rally FB page:   www.facebook.com/ICUAYouthRally