Board votes to seek federal oversight

Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, a wholesale power provider serving electric cooperatives in Colorado and three other states, will place itself under federal regulation after its board of directors voted Tuesday to move ahead with the plan.

Westminster-based Tri-State will start filing its proposed rates with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The utility, which has a total of 43 member cooperatives in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico, has said having FERC regulate its rates would give it more flexibility than being subject to regulation by four different states.

The change will affect only its electric rates, Tri-State said in a statement. “Tri-State will continue to work constructively with state leaders on resource planning, renewable energy and environmental issues,” according to the statement.

But Colorado legislators have questioned the implications of the change, and whether rate payers would be affected. Leaders of the Democratic-controlled Colorado General Assembly asked Tri-State last week to delay its plan.

The decision to seek federal oversight follows the legislature’s approval of a new law that requires Tri-State to submit its resource plans to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for approval. In the past, Tri-State shared its plans with the PUC but didn’t need its approval.

However, calls have grown for the PUC to exercise more authority over Tri-State. The utility has been criticized for relying too much on coal while the costs of renewable energy continue to drop and efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions increase. TriState says about a third of its power comes from renewable sources and it plans to increase that.

“From the state perspective, we probably would have preferred Tri-State take additional time to allow all stakeholders to fully understand the implications of the move before they voted on it,” Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said Wednesday.

But Toor said the state’s analysis is that the PUC will still have authority over Tri-State’s resource planning and the state Air Quality Control Commission will have authority to regulate the utility’s emissions.

The Tri-State board’s vote comes as the Colorado PUC is preparing to hear a complaint from the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, which wants to end its contract with Tri-State. Delta-Montrose says the exit fee Tri-State wants is unreasonable and discriminatory and has accused the utility of trying to short-circuit the complaint by seeking federal regulation.