WESTMINSTER — Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is holding a public meeting today to discuss its plans for supplying power to rural customers in four states.
The cooperative, based in Westminster, supplies power to members serving about 1.5 million people in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska.
Tri-State is among the largest electricity providers in Colorado, but the state has had limited oversight of electric cooperatives. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission in 2009 considered whether it should further regulate Tri-State and its plans for providing power in the future because of concerns about power-plant emissions, state mandates for more renewable energy and uncertainty about costs for developing electricity projects.
Tri-State, which had questioned the commission’s legal authority to oversee its plans, in late 2009 reached an agreement with the environmental law and policy group Western Resource Advocates to voluntarily allow more public and state input into its planning. Resource plans include projected demand for power, sources of that power and projected emissions.
Today’s public meeting will discuss changes that could affect a 20-year resource plan Tri-State filed last fall. It plans to file an update Nov. 30.
Tri-State doesn’t need state approval of the plan, but Tri-State agreed to hear any concerns from the Public Utilities Commission on its plan and address questions.
