By Art Mass

In wake of recent urgings from environmentalists that its future power plant building should be under the oversight of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, Tri-State Generation and Transmission announced a major policy change on Friday.

The state’s number two power utility said it will shift from a longstanding focus of building coal-fired power plants to developing natural gas, renewable energy and efficiency. The announcement was made after the move was approved by Tri-State’s board at its annual meeting the day before.

The shift is a huge one - if it does, indeed, plays out in coming years. The company supplies wholesale power to 18 electric-distribution cooperatives in Colorado and 26 in Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska. The reaction to the move by clean energy and environmental groups was cautiously supportive.

As previously reported this week in Colorado Energy News, Tri-State has received considerable heat from  clean energy supporters for not embracing alternative energy in its future plans, the way investor-owned utility Xcel Energy has done. The power company’s two-year-old resource plan had called for the construction of 2,100 megawatts of new coal-fired power plants by 2012.

During a speech before the Tri-State board,Gov. Ritter said “You deserve a lot of credit for making efficiency, renewables and new technology investments a high priority as you look for new and better ways to provide affordable and reliable electricity to your rural customer-owners,” according to a text released by his office. “We are showing the world how to create a more sustainable mix of energy sources that includes energy efficiency, solar, wind and natural gas.”

Here are the key components of the policy shift ad described by Tri-State:

• “Developing a 30-megawatt, 500,000-panel solar photovoltaic power plant in northeastern New Mexico. Construction is scheduled to be complete by December 2010. Tri-State expects to announce additional renewable energy projects later this year.
• * “Incentivizing the development of local, community-based renewable energy projects, with the first project online this spring in northeastern Colorado.
• * “Contracting for 220 megawatts of natural gas-based capacity in eastern Colorado to meet members’ near-term power requirements and assist in the integration of renewable energy.
• * “Enhancing energy efficiency programs, including the addition of consumer incentives for purchasing certain Energy Star-rated appliances and increased funding for new technology pilot projects, including “smart grid,” light-emitting diode (LED) commercial lighting and low temperature heat pumps.
• * “Investing in efficiency improvements across Tri-State’s generation and transmission facilities, with over $30 million budgeted in 2009 for efficiency gains at the association’s power plants and reduction of system losses in transmission infrastructure.
• * “Commissioning a study of additional energy efficiency and demand response programs to be completed this year that could provide additional energy savings.”

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which has made renewable energy a priority, has been reviewing whether it should beef up its oversight of Tri-State’s resource-planning process. The PUC has received some 5,000 public comments on the matter.

Until now, the PUC has generally left the nonprofit utility’s resource plans — including power-plant construction and new transmission lines — up to Tri-State because it operates across several states.