{"id":96788,"date":"2018-12-10T17:32:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T00:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/co-op-seeks-to-change-tri-state-rules-to-boost-renewable-energy-buying-power\/"},"modified":"2018-12-10T17:32:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T00:32:05","slug":"co-op-seeks-to-change-tri-state-rules-to-boost-renewable-energy-buying-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/co-op-seeks-to-change-tri-state-rules-to-boost-renewable-energy-buying-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-op seeks to change Tri-State rules to boost renewable energy buying power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"United
United Power, the largest Tri-State Generation and Transmission co-op, wants to work with other co-ops to change restrictive Tri-State rules on renewable energy.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Front Range electrical co-op is asking La Plata Electric Association for help in changing the restrictive rules imposed by electrical wholesale supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission.<\/p>\n

Tri-State is owned and governed by its 43 members, including LPEA, and those members can vote to change how Tri-State<\/a> is managed.<\/p>\n

United Power, a co-op in the Denver-metro area, sent letters to all of its fellow co-ops inviting them to discuss possibly changing Tri-State\u2019s bylaws to allow co-ops to purchase more power from sources outside of Tri-State, said Troy Whitmore, a United Power spokesman. All Tri-State co-ops are required to purchase 95 percent of their power from Tri-State.<\/p>\n

United Power, the largest of the Tri-State co-ops, would like the freedom to purchase more power from locally generated renewable sources, although it would like to continue purchasing some of its power from Tri-State, Whitmore said.<\/p>\n

LPEA intends to work with United Power on plans to change the bylaws, said Ron Meier, manager of engineering and member relations.<\/p>\n

LPEA formed a committee this fall to explore alternatives to Tri-State power; the committee expects to present its findings early next year.<\/p>\n

United Power would like bylaw changes to be voted on at the Tri-State annual meeting in April, Whitmore said. The Tri-State board can place bylaw changes on the ballot or a minority of the co-ops can submit a petition to put the changes on the ballot, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly have interest from several co-ops already, but it\u2019s pretty early in that process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of United Power\u2019s \u201cgrave\u201d concerns is the cost of power provided by Tri-State, which is significantly more expensive than the power provided by Xcel Energy, one of the co-op\u2019s competitors, according to United Power\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

United Power is interested in purchasing enough of its energy from outside sources to significantly bring its costs down, Whitmore said.<\/p>\n

In response to questions about United Power\u2019s letter, Lee Boughey, a spokesman for Tri-State, said: \u201cOur wholesale rates have remained stable four of the last five years, will not increase next year and are forecasted to remain stable in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letters that were sent to the co-ops invited them to contact United Power to further discuss the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t an \u2018us\u2019 vs \u2018them\u2019; it\u2019s a discussion of where the industry is going, how all members can remain financially whole, how members can gain more flexibility in their power supply, and how Tri-State can remain relevant and responsive to its members,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

United Power\u2019s letter was published by cleancooperative.com<\/a>, an online news outlet specializing in rural electrical co-ops. The online publication shared it with The Durango Herald.<\/p>\n

mshinn@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n

United Power Letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

receives letter from United Power<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[490,483,1426],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-electricity-production-and-distribution","tag-la-plata-electric-association","tag-renewable-energy"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96788","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=96788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96788"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}