{"id":111470,"date":"2015-06-29T16:55:22","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T22:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-grant-local-electric-co-ops-more-control\/"},"modified":"2015-06-29T16:55:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T22:55:22","slug":"feds-grant-local-electric-co-ops-more-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/feds-grant-local-electric-co-ops-more-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds grant local electric co-ops more control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could give local electric co-ops such as La Plata Electric Association the ability to purchase more power from local sources. But the decision could still be appealed.<\/span>Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A federal decision issued last week could give La Plata Electric Association more independence to purchase electricity from more green sources.<\/p>\n

In its decision, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed with the Delta-Montrose Electric Association that small local electrical co-ops have an obligation to purchase power from certain small facilities.<\/p>\n

The Delta-Montrose association argued it has a federal obligation to purchase power from facilities producing 25 kilowatts of electricity, regardless of its contract with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. The association is a wholesale energy supplier that operates in four states, including Colorado.<\/p>\n

This decision could grant all 44 members of Tri-State including LPEA greater independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see that as being a potential benefit for all 44 members,\u201d said Michael Dreyspring, CEO of LPEA.<\/p>\n

It is not a final decision because Tri-State still has the ability to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are evaluating this ruling and the potential ramification to Tri-State,\u201d said Lee Boughey, a spokesman for LPEA.<\/p>\n

Right now, Tri-State co-ops can purchase only 5 percent of their power from an outside source such as solar, methane recovery or biomass generation, Dreyspring said.<\/p>\n

This ruling could help LPEA and the rest of the state use more nontraditional sources of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we demand less power from them, they, perhaps, don\u2019t have to dig as much coal,\u201d said Britt Bassett, an LPEA board member.<\/p>\n

It could also give LPEA more flexibility in negotiations than it has currently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have to go through Tri-State to make it happen. We can negotiate whatever price we want,\u201d said Michael Rendon, president of the LPEA board.<\/p>\n

The use of smaller, decentralized power sources is a national trend, but it also requires greater local control of the grid and upgrades in existing infrastructure, Dreyspring said. These upgrades must happen faster to use the nontraditional power available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing distributed generation take the continental shelf of the U.S. by storm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tri-State could appeal decision favorable to renewables<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[490,13,483,167,1426],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-electricity-production-and-distribution","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-la-plata-electric-association","tag-local-news-lead","tag-renewable-energy"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111470"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}