Tri-State Backs Renewable Energy Requirement,
Lowers Green Power Premium
March 26, 2007
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association in
Westminster sent CRES a fact sheet on March 9 announcing the
company’s support for HB-1281, which doubles the renewable energy
requirement for the state. Tri-State provides electricity to 44
electric cooperatives in five states; 18 of these cooperatives are
in Colorado.
Tri-State supports the provision in HB-1281 that
limits costs to its member cooperatives to 1%. This consumer
protection provision is called a rate cap, and will be calculated by
each member cooperative. It also supports the incentives worth 1.25
compliance credits for projects built in Colorado and worth 1.5
credits toward projects that are built by local communities and
rural electric cooperatives.
To our knowledge, HB-1281 is the first renewable
energy bill that Tri-State has publicly supported. According to the
fact sheet, the key to obtaining its support was to recognize “the
fundamental differences between member-owned, not-for-profit rural
electric cooperatives, city owned municipal utilities, and
for-profit electric utilities by establishing separate standards for
each.”
Recently, the company also involved electric
cooperatives in energy efficiency. The new program provides 1,000
compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to each of our 44 member co-ops for
distribution to member consumers. See the Tri-State news story on
its website at:
http://www.tristategt.org/NewsCenter/NewsItems/CFL.cfm
Finally, Tri-State halved the premium for its
renewable energy program in January from $2.50 per block of 100
kilowatt-hours (kWh) to $1.25. Tri-State buys green tags from a
number of existing small hydro installations in Colorado, the
Medicine Bow Wind Power Plant in southern Wyoming, and from a couple
of methane generators at hog farms. For details, see the news story
on the Tri-State website:
http://www.tristategt.org/NewsCenter/NewsItems/renewableEnergyCut.cfm . |
