By David A. Hill

You couldn’t blame Tri-State Generation and Transmission for feeling as though it has a bulls-eye target on its back, lately.

The cooperative, member-owned utility is currently in a battle with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to avoid oversight by the state board whose three members are appointed by the governor. Environmental groups and renewable energy advocates are calling for more solar and wind in its power envelope, saying co-ops like Tri-State should have to get more than 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020,
which would bring them closer to the 20-percent level required of
investor-owned utilities such as Xcel.

Now, even a former chairman of the COPUC has gotten into the heated dialogue, telling David O. Williams in the Colorado Independent, that Tri-State could put themselves out of business with its heavy investment into a Kansas coal - fired plant.

Ron Lehr was chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in the early 1990s when the Montrose-based Colorado Ute Electric Association went bankrupt because of what he deemed “a colossal blunder,” and believes Tri-State could be making the same mistake. Now an attorney for Interwest Energy Alliance, Lehr  said Colorado Ute built the Craig 3 coal-fired power plant in the northwest part of the state because at the time, the co-op’s board believed it would be needed to power the state’s about-to-boom oil shale industry. That industry went bust in the 1980s, and Colorado Ute followed suit a few years later.

The Westminster-based #2 power provider in the state isn’t taking all the hits lying down, and, in fact, has recently launched a media blitz to counter the claims of its critics.

As far as the Kansas power plant, Jim Van Someren, a spokesman for Tri-State, told Colorado Energy News that, as of yet, the board of directors has not made a final commitment to participate in the expansion project at Sunflower Electric’s Holcomb Station. Tri State’s 44-member board is comprised of representatives of each of the rural electric co-ops it provides power to in Nebraska, Wyoming and New Mexico
and 18 co-ops in Colorado.

“The agreement Tri-State had with Sunflower existed under a different set of circumstances and outside the framework of the agreement reached between Sunflower and the Governor’s office in Kansas.  We are certainly encouraged that the parties in Kansas were able to find common ground and the proposed project remains as a potential option for Tri-State to meet our member co-ops’ long-term resource requirements.  Tri-State’s board and senior staff are currently evaluating the matter,” added Van Someren.

Regarding the percentage of renewable energy in its portfolio, Van Someren said, “We supported the 2007 legislation requiring 10 percent renewables for rural co-ops, which was passed and signed by the governor and presumably adopted in some fashion or another by the PUC, and we will certainly comply with that.”

Tri-State contends that many of its critics - including Ron Lehr - are misrepresenting the direction and philosophy of Tri-State’s resource planning. 

“We continue to take significant steps to diversify our portfolio with additional energy efficiency, hydroelectricity, natural gas and renewable energy,” said Van Someren. “What often gets lost in the “discussion” is the fact that currently nearly 13 percent of the power Tri-State provides to its member co-ops is hydroelectricity (the “original renewable”) supplied to us from the Western Area Power Administration. We are prudently review how coal-based resources fit into our long-term resource plans — recognizing how changing energy and environmental policies impact coal-based resources.”

The power company has been expanding its efficiency programs. Like Xcel, it is partnering with the U.S. DOE and EPA’s ENERGY STAR program and is adding additional appliances to its energy efficiency program.  Also new to the program are matching fund incentives for commercial applications of LED (light emitting diode) lighting utilized for street and commercial lighting, funding for low temperature heat pumps and heat pump water heaters, and a pilot program to test “smart grid” technologies.

“We’ve already have distributed near a half a million compact fluorescent light bulbs to rural consumers, said Van Someren.  Tri-State offers its members a rebate of $1 per CFL and many co-ops choose to pass the rebate directly on to customers.

On the natural gas front, Tri-State is adding 220 megawatts of new capacity from combined-cycle natural gas facilities in eastern Colorado via purchase power agreements.  This capacity will help it meet near-term member requirements while assisting with the integration of renewable energy resources.

The renewables issue is the one receiving the most scrutiny from critics of the company’s policies, yet Tri-State says it is doing much more in the area than people realize, including pursuing projects at the community and utility scale level.

“Last year we launched the most aggressive cooperative program in the country to encourage the development of local and community-based renewable energy projects.  This spring, Highline Electric Association’s (Holyoke, Colo.) 3.7-megawatt waste heat recovery project will be the first project to go online under the program, Van Someren said. “We supported renewable portfolio standards in Colorado, issued a renewable energy request for proposals, and just announced the largest cooperative solar project in the nation and among the largest in the world, to help diversify Tri-State’s resource portfolio.  We expect to announce several projects in the coming months,” he added.

Tri-State is particularly put off by the notion that rural, member-owned co-ops can’t govern themselves and somehow need to be protected from making poor business decisions. “Having that level of government regulation - three appointed officials in Denver - trying to make decisions about what’s best for rural Coloradans, say in the San Luis Valley, makes no sense,” Van Someren told Williams in the Colorado Independent story.  ”Tri-State and our member co-ops have a long, successful history of self-governance.”

Lehr offered a different opinion. “There’s an argument that they’re adequately regulated by their board of directors, and I think that’s a questionable assertion because of the experience we had with Colorado Ute.” he said.