Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which serves electric cooperatives in four Western states, is being sued by five Nebraska members for allegedly overcharging for electricity.
When the five rural Nebraska cooperatives sought to buy out their Tri-State contracts, they were told it would cost $210 million, according to the suit filed in federal district court in Omaha.
Tri-State, based in Westminster, serves 44 cooperatives in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska. There are 18 Colorado cooperatives.
Jim Van Someren, a Tri-State spokesman, said the company is charging all of its members the same rates for electricity in an effort to “be fair.”
The contracts that the Nebraska cooperatives want to buy out run to 2050, Van Someren said.
“A member has the right to buy out,” Van Someren said. “We did exactly what the cooperatives asked for and provided the dollar figures.”
Ray Gifford, the attorney for the cooperatives, said the lawsuit was a last resort for the Nebraska co-ops.
“If Tri-State doesn’t want us, at least give us an equitable divorce,” he said.
The Nebraska group contends that most of its electricity comes from cheap Western Area Power Authority hydropower.
Still, Tri-State charges double the cost it pays the power authority, the suit says.
“What’s happening is that low- cost, low-growth Nebraska co-ops are being asked to subsidize high-growth areas in Colorado and Wyoming,” Gifford said.
The price Tri-State pays for power is only part of the cost of providing electricity, which includes such items as building and maintaining transmission lines and administrative costs, Van Someren said.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
