By Art Mass

Xcel Energy to Expand Wind-Power Purchase from Northeastern Colorado Wind Energy Center

Late last week Xcel Energy said it will expand its wind-power purchase from NextEra Energy Resources’ Northeastern Colorado Wind Energy Center. Under the agreement, the facility in the Peetz Table area of Logan County will grow by 22.5 megawatts to nearly 175 megawatts.

Xcel’s agreement with Florida-based NextEra Energy, formerly FPL Energy, is subject to approval by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. If approved, 15 new 1.5-megawatt wind turbines would be installed at the facility by the end of the year.

The 25-year contract between Xcel and NextEra calls for Xcel paying $50 per megawatt hour of energy produced during the farm’s first year of operation. The price of the power rises after the first year.

Minneapolis-based Xcel (NYSE: XEL), Colorado’s largest power utility, also plans to add up to 700 megawatts of intermittent renewable-energy generation by the end of 2015 from bids received in response to a recent RFP.

Tri-State’s Greenhouse Gas Management Plan

As part of its ongoing, comprehensive operational risk identification and analysis strategy, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has developed a Greenhouse Gas Management Roadmap. Tri-State submitted the document to the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office on June 5.

The roadmap is an external report on Tri-State’s continuing internal process to assess the association’s potential to manage the risks associated with possible constraints on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its multi-state system, as it develops the information, data, tools and technologies necessary to position itself to manage GHG emissions while continuing to affordably and reliably meet the demand and energy requirements of its 44 member distribution cooperatives.

“Tri-State’s success in meeting emission reduction goals will be heavily dependent upon the development of cost-effective energy and environmental technologies to address greenhouse gas emissions, as well as efficient technologies to manage electricity consumption,” said Tri-State executive vice president and general manager Ken Anderson.

The power company’s roadmap provides updates on several ongoing initiatives, including:
♦ Energy efficiency, renewable energy and system efficiency programs
♦ Studies on end-use efficiency and demand-side management; carbon dioxide footprint, sequestration and monetization; and generation technology selection
♦ Technology research, development and demonstration projects

Tri-State is hoping the document sends a strong signal to its critics that it is, indeed, addressing the CO2 emissions issue with a new aggressiveness. “Our roadmap demonstrates that Tri-State is engaged in a number of specific activities, programs and initiatives that can address potential greenhouse gas emission constraints,” Anderson said. “These are the primary areas that we feel can be the most
effective in addressing the issue at hand, not only in Colorado, but across our entire fourstate service territory.” The 64,000 dollar question, of course, is just what concrete policies will eventually be undertaken by the company that will  help reduce greenhouse gases.

The wholesale power supplier says it is dealing with a volatile mix of public policy uncertainty, emerging technologies and the developing GHG marketplace, as it attempts to develop its own approach to emissions management on both a short and long-term basis. The roadmap is an important first step.

“The results from specific actions identified in the roadmap will help us develop information that will shape our approach to resource planning and modeling, assessments and analysis,” Anderson said. “We’ll continue to identify specific actions to address GHG emissions and the impacts of those actions on our ability to continue to provide an affordable and reliable source of electricity to our membership.”