Bill Cherrier left Colorado to return to Iowa for several key reasons. “Iowa nice” is real. The recreational trails are a big draw for a guy who likes to run and bike.

And Iowa has CIPCO.

What is a CIPCO, you ask? It’s a co-op. Des Moines-based CIPCO, or the Central Iowa Power Cooperative, delivers power to 300,000 rural and urban residents and more than 12,000 commercial and industrial accounts.

Cherrier has been a big admirer of CIPCO for decades. Since October, he has run the place. CIPCO is going down the same renewable energy path of many others, and it’s directly helping with economic development.

We talked with Cherrier about what is in store for him as he settles back into Iowa. 

What attracted you to this position?
My roots are in Iowa. I have known about CIPCO my entire utility career. I first started in the utility business with Iowa Electric Light and Power Co. out of Cedar Rapids. We went through several mergers. I left there in 2005 to get into the municipal utility business. That at the time looked very attractive. All my kids were out of the house. The division I was in at Alliant was likely to be sold, so I started to take an interest in the utility business that had a very strong customer focus. I did end up in the municipal utility world. The municipals and the co-ops are very, very customer-focused. They are owned by their customers. I stayed in that 12 years out in Colorado.

When this opportunity came out, to be part of CIPCO and to be back in Iowa was very attractive. I have a lot of people — a lot of people — ask, “Why in the world did you move from Colorado to Iowa?” Usually my response is, “You don’t know Iowa.” We love Iowa.

What do you consider Iowa’s strengths?
Iowans are nice people. I remember one boss was either from Chicago or New York, and she said, “You guys are so nice here. You need to be a little tougher.” I was out in Colorado, and we really enjoyed it out there. But coming back here, you can’t get over it. You really notice (the friendliness). You never really understand it until you are away from it for quite a while. 

You moved to Des Moines to take this job, right?
Yes, I was in Colorado Springs (where he was CFO of Colorado Springs Municipal Utilities). They had total assets of $4.5 billion. CIPCO is $800 million. 

What is CIPCO?
CIPCO leases or generates its electrical capacity and transmission capacity on behalf of its members. (The members include) 13 co-ops (most of them rural electrical cooperatives), including a municipal group of 12 communities. We provide the generating resources for the member co-ops. That includes transmitting it to the members. 

Iowa has many municipal utilities. Some of them are independent. Some are grouped together for their generation. 

If you are in, say, Pella, you are getting your power from Pella, and Pella is getting its power from CIPCO. 

Where does CIPCO get its power?
We own some capacity, and we lease some. We have owned 20 percent of Duane Arnold Energy Center (the nuclear plant in Palo) since its inception. We have partial ownership of Louisa Generating Station near Muscatine. We have partial ownership of Walter Scott Units 3 and 4. We get 23.6 percent of our wind from power purchase agreements, in which we buy from someone else who owns the facility. Here’s the breakdown (as of December 2016): nuclear, 33.7 percent; coal, 38.3 percent; wind, 23.6 percent; hydro/solar/landfill methane, 3.3 percent; oil/natural gas, 0.05 percent; other purchases, 0.05 percent. (Solar was added this year.) We are 60 percent carbon-free. That is a lot for a co-op.

How many accounts do you serve? 
We serve 300,000 rural and urban residents and more than 12,000 commercial and industrial accounts.

CIPCO has an economic development arm too, right?
CIPCO has funded 50 projects with low-interest loans that resulted in over $115 million in investment in rural Iowa and created over 700 jobs. We made loans for projects at Sully Locker and Meat in Pella; Lamoni Development Corp. as part of the Freedom Racing Project in Lamoni;  Elplast America in Marion; Knoxville Community Hospital in Knoxville; Clarke County Hospital in Osceola; and Southwestern Community College in Creston.

What does the future hold?
We are seeing changes in Washington, D.C., where they may or may not be headed with clean power. But CIPCO and a lot of the utilities nationwide have already made commitments to reduce carbon, to come into a lot of the renewables. CIPCO is doing it economically. 

What do you do in your free time?
Running and biking. Doing things with the family. I’ve been on a bike team out in Colorado, a racing team, for six or seven years. I would do a 50-mile (bike) race at Breckenridge at 9,000 or 10,000 feet. I did the Pikes Peak hill climb. For running, I did the Pikes Peak ascent. I’ve done the Colorado Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, the Boston Marathon.