{"id":65573,"date":"2019-08-02T01:55:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/delta-montrose-electric-prohibited-from-helping-lpea-exit-tri-state\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:09:37","slug":"delta-montrose-electric-prohibited-from-helping-lpea-exit-tri-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/delta-montrose-electric-prohibited-from-helping-lpea-exit-tri-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta-Montrose Electric prohibited from helping LPEA exit Tri-State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Delta-Montrose
Delta-Montrose Electric Association reached a settlement with Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which will allow it to leave its contract with the wholesale energy supplier and pursue more renewable energy generation.<\/span>John Jaques\/Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Delta-Montrose Electric Association successfully negotiated an exit from Southwest Colorado\u2019s wholesale electricity supplier this month, but it won\u2019t be able to help other co-ops, such as La Plata Electric Association, do the same.<\/p>\n

The settlement that Delta-Montrose Electric Association said resulted in a \u201cfair and reasonable\u201d exit fee required to leave Tri-State Generation and Transmission, also prohibits DMEA from assisting other co-ops interested in leaving the wholesale energy supplier, the settlement said.<\/p>\n

DMEA did not respond to questions about whether it could help LPEA withdraw from Tri-State at some point in the future when DMEA has completed its exit from Tri-State.<\/p>\n

DMEA was interested in buying out of its contract from Tri-State to stabilize its rates, build more local renewable power generation and create more jobs. LPEA as been exploring an exit from Tri-State for similar reasons.<\/p>\n

Tri-State has been heavily reliant on coal, as the price of renewable energy has fallen, causing some co-ops to explore alternative power suppliers. In the last year, Tri-State has committed to developing more renewable energy, but LPEA has continued to investigate a buyout.<\/p>\n

The ability for co-ops to call on one another for help is one of the principals of the co-op model, and the requirement goes against that guiding idea, said Ron Meier, LPEA\u2019s manager of engineering and member relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unexpected and odd,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It also eliminates DMEA as a resource to LPEA as the co-op continues to explore a buyout, he said.<\/p>\n

LPEA is contracted to buy 95% of its power from Tri-State until 2050.<\/p>\n

Consultants told LPEA in April<\/a> that it could purchase more renewable power at lower prices than Tri-State offers and reliability of power would not suffer.<\/p>\n

However, determining whether leaving Tri-State is financially viable depends on how much LPEA would have to pay Tri-State to leave its contract.<\/p>\n

LPEA officials were watching the case between Delta-Montrose and Tri-State closely to see if it could set a precedent LPEA could follow.<\/p>\n

The settlement DMEA and Tri-State reached stipulates DMEA\u2019s exit fee will not be released until May 2020 when DMEA\u2019s exit is finalized, said Virginia Harman with DMEA.<\/p>\n

LPEA requested an estimate this month of how much it will cost to exit its contract with Tri-State. But LPEA has not decided to pursue a buyout, and the co-op does not have a timeline to make a decision, Meier said.<\/p>\n

So, when DMEA\u2019s exit fee is released in May, it could still help inform LPEA\u2019s decision, he said.<\/p>\n

LPEA officials are also involved with a Tri-State committee working to craft the requirements for contracts that could allow co-ops to purchase more than 5% of their power from sources outside of Tri-State, he said.<\/p>\n

LPEA staff recently proposed a plan that could allow electrical co-ops to purchase power from local solar arrays and get a discount from Tri-State because the co-ops wouldn\u2019t need as much traditional fuel to be burned to meet their energy needs, Meier said.<\/p>\n

A less stringent contract with Tri-State could help LPEA to pursue more renewable energy, if a buyout proves too expensive, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel it\u2019s worth our time to explore all avenues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Requirement \u2018unexpected and odd,\u2019 says official with local co-op<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5738,6080,6176,5735,5741],"tags":[21,490,483,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-cortez","category-electricity-production-and-distribution","category-la-plata-electric-association","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-cortez","tag-electricity-production-and-distribution","tag-la-plata-electric-association","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65573","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=65573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92694,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65573\/revisions\/92694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65573"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}