Home / In-person training by city / Glenwood Springs, CO
In-person · Glenwood Springs, COElectrical safety training in Glenwood Springs, CO
Glenwood Springs sits where the Roaring Fork meets the Colorado River, with a city-owned electric system, a century-old hydro plant in the canyon and natural gas country starting down the river at Rifle. We train the electrical crews who keep Garfield County's hospital, resorts, utilities and well pads running, at your facility or in an in-person class we set up in Glenwood Springs when you ask.
Private employers in Colorado are inspected by federal OSHA. Every class is live, on the 2027 edition of NFPA 70E, and taught by a Certified Safety Professional. Colorado electrical safety training requirements →
Among the teams we have trained in the last year
Four ways to train your Glenwood Springs crew
Crews we train in and around Glenwood Springs: hospitals, resorts and attractions, utilities, oil and gas, higher education and schools, public employers.
What the class covers for Glenwood Springs crews
Hot springs pools, spas and lodge mechanical rooms combine heated water, pumps and corrosive air. We cover how moisture and corrosion change equipment condition and what that means for the risk assessment.
Glenwood Springs Electric runs its own distribution system. We cover line and pad-mount work in context of the separate utility rules, and focus on the facility side where NFPA 70E applies directly.
Solar plus storage sites near Rifle and Parachute bring DC hazards that most valley electricians have not worked on. We explain DC arc flash and shock considerations for battery enclosures and inverters.
Well pads and compressor sites west of town pair classified locations with long rural service drops. We cover arc flash as an ignition source and planning work alone at remote pads.
Glenwood Springs at a glance
Federal OSHA (Denver Area Office)
Glenwood Springs Electric (municipal); Holy Cross Energy; Xcel Energy
Statewide (Colorado State Electrical Board, DORA)
EGE, ASE
Mountain
Colorado: what applies to your crews
Enforcement: federal OSHA
Garfield County is handled by federal OSHA's Denver Area Office. Because Colorado has no state plan, electricians employed by the City of Glenwood Springs, including its municipal electric crews, and by Garfield County fall outside OSHA.
Licensing: statewide
The Colorado State Electrical Board, part of DORA, issues residential wireman, journeyman and master licenses and registers contractors and apprentices, and the same license covers work in Glenwood, Rifle or Denver.
Where NFPA 70E fits
OSHA does not enforce NFPA 70E. Hospitals, resorts and gas producers in Garfield County use it to show how they meet OSHA 1910 Subpart S or 1926 Subpart K, and OSHA can use the General Duty Clause when a recognized electrical hazard goes unaddressed.
Glenwood Springs's electrical work environment
Health care, schools and tourism carry the local economy. Valley View Hospital employs between 1,000 and 1,250 people, ahead of retailers, the Roaring Fork School District, Colorado Mountain College and the Glenwood Hot Springs Resort. Colorado Mountain College is headquartered here, with about 1,908 students downtown and 810 at the Spring Valley campus south of town in 2022. Hot springs pools running 93 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit mean pumps, heat exchangers and wet-location wiring are part of everyday maintenance.
Glenwood Canyon is an electrical worksite in its own right. Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, at 7,132 feet on Iron Mountain, reaches its rides by a Leitner-Poma detachable gondola installed in 2019 and runs coasters, a drop tower and a canyon swing. Farther east, the twin 4,000 foot bores of the Hanging Lake Tunnel carry I-70 and house a control center that monitors canyon cameras and message signs. Sunlight Mountain Resort, 12 miles south, runs three chairlifts with more than 2,010 feet of vertical.
West along I-70 the work shifts to energy. Rifle, the most populous community in Garfield County at 10,437 residents, sits on the eastern edge of the Piceance Basin and has ridden oil shale and gas booms and busts for a century. Terra Energy Partners and Chevron hold the recent drilling activity in the county, and Holy Cross Energy has added AES-built solar and battery sites at High Mesa near Parachute and Mamm Creek near Rifle.
Hot springs, canyon infrastructure and Piceance gas
Garfield County's electrical work runs from resort and hospital buildings in Glenwood Springs to hydro, tunnels and gas fields along the Colorado River. These are the main sites.
| Site | What is there | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Valley View Hospital Valley View Hospital | The city's largest employer, with 1,000 to 1,250 employees. | Operating |
| Shoshone Hydroelectric Generating Station Xcel Energy | Two 7.5 MW generators in Glenwood Canyon with Colorado River water rights dating to 1902. | Operating |
| Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park Glenwood Caverns Holding LLC | Mountaintop park reached by a detachable gondola installed in 2019, with 100 to 249 employees. | Operating |
| Hanging Lake Tunnel Colorado Department of Transportation | Twin 4,000 foot I-70 bores opened in 1992 with an internal traffic control center. | Operating |
| Sunlight Mountain Resort Sunlight Mountain Resort | Three-chairlift ski area 12 miles south of town in the White River National Forest. | Operating |
| High Mesa solar and storage Holy Cross Energy, built by AES | 10 MW solar with 20 MWh of storage near Parachute, scheduled to come online in summer 2024. | Operating |
| Mamm Creek solar and storage Holy Cross Energy, built by AES | Matching 10 MW and 20 MWh site near Rifle, scheduled to come online in early 2025. | Operating |
| Piceance Basin gas wells Terra Energy Partners, Chevron | Recent Garfield County drilling activity is concentrated with these two operators. | Operating |
A city-owned utility, Holy Cross Energy and canyon hydro
The City of Glenwood Springs operates its own electric and water utilities. Glenwood Springs Electric has bought its bulk power from the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska since 2012, and on June 1, 2019 the city began supplying 100 percent renewable electricity after council approved buying all of its power from MEAN. Holy Cross Energy, the co-op headquartered in Glenwood Springs with roughly 45,000 customers in the Roaring Fork, Colorado River and Eagle River valleys, serves much of the surrounding area.
Holy Cross reported 76 percent renewable supply in March 2024 and set a target of 100 percent by 2030, using wind from eastern Colorado, solar in Arapahoe County and the new storage sites near Rifle and Parachute. In the canyon, Xcel's Shoshone plant began generating in 1909 and holds 1,250 cubic feet per second of senior Colorado River rights, which makes it as important to water managers as to the grid.
Who we train in Glenwood Springs and Garfield County
Facilities electricians and plant engineers at Valley View Hospital.
Maintenance teams at the hot springs, Glenwood Caverns and Sunlight Mountain Resort.
Glenwood Springs Electric crews and Holy Cross Energy line and substation staff.
Production and contract electricians working Piceance wells around Rifle and Parachute.
Colorado Mountain College and Roaring Fork School District facilities staff.
City and county electricians and water plant staff, who have no OSHA coverage.
Also serving
Questions from Glenwood Springs employers
We are a city electric utility. Does NFPA 70E apply to us?
Can you train hot springs and lodge maintenance staff?
Do you cover battery storage hazards?
Can gas field crews from Rifle join a class in Glenwood?
Does finishing the class make someone a qualified electrical worker?
What the people in the room say
“Virtual can never replace hands-on, but the engagement from our instructor and the class made it feel more engaging than some in-person courses I've taken.”
“Probably one of the most useful safety courses I've ever attended. Rick genuinely cares about people and their well-being.”
“This is the 2nd arc flash training course I've taken and the class was amazing. I feel like I'm leaving the training safer than before I took this class.”
Train your Glenwood Springs crew on the 2027 edition.
Onsite within a few days, or private live virtual as soon as tomorrow. Need it fast? Call (813) 725-0999.