Tri-State Generation and Transmission’s plan to spend $5 billion on three new coal-burning power plants could saddle members with big rate hikes and other financial risks, a Boulder environmental research group said Tuesday.
Members of Westminster- based Tri-State face rate increases of 64 to 80 percent over the next five years to pay for the coal plants, according to a report by Western Resource Advocates.
“Tri-State doesn’t have any solid justification for building even one of these plants,” said Rick Gilliam, author of the report. “Co-op members have to ask themselves if it’s worth such drastic rate increases to pay for something that’s only needed for speculative (demand) and that won’t have any benefit for them.”
A Tri-State spokesman said the report contains errors and “misinterprets the foundations of Tri-State’s resource development plan.”
“Tri-State effectively plans for the future,” spokesman Jim Van Someren said. “Those challenging these plans fundamentally dislike pulverized coal generation resources. Their issue is not with the cost of our plans; it is with the resources … we pursue.”
Tri-State has proposed spending $5 billion to build two coal-fired power plants in western Kansas by 2013 and one in southeastern Colorado by 2020, primarily to serve growing demand for electricity from Front Range customers. Tri-State provides power to 44 electric cooperatives in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.
The report’s projection of a 64 percent rate increase “is a huge increase for me and other customers to have to swallow for something we don’t support,” said Chris Calwell, a customer of Durango-based La Plata Electric Association, one of Tri-State’s co-op members.
Van Someren said Tri-State members have been told that rates will rise over the next five years, but the utility has not disclosed a specific amount.
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
