Colorado is vulnerable to a Texas-like power failure. We must act now.
The wide scale power outages in Texas have reminded all of us how fragile our energy system can be and the dangers created when we lose something we typically take for granted. When you turn on your lights do you know where that electricity is coming from or how it got there? It’s OK if you’re not sure — most people don’t know. The answer is a bit complicated and it depends on where you live. However, whether you live in Montrose, Denver, Sterling, or Pueblo, the problem is the same, and Colorado urgently needs to improve its electricity grid.
Electricity is generated by either coal, natural gas, or renewables, and is then transported through transmission lines to a substation, where the electricity is converted to a lower voltage so it can safely be delivered to your home or business through smaller distribution lines. Though this seems like a fairly efficient process, there is a big problem. Colorado, like Texas, is basically an island in the U.S. grid, which means we can’t efficiently share resources with our neighbors. This constraint means that ratepayers pay more for power and in a weather crisis, reliability is reduced.
In Colorado, our grid is controlled by just a handful of utilities and transmission owners, leaving little to no room for competition and often stifling transmission projects that would boost new investment and create local jobs. But we have a solution for that.
This week we introduced Senate Bill 72, legislation that will streamline new transmission investments, create the Colorado Energy Transmission Authority to independently develop projects that support ratepayers, and provide a pathway for Colorado to interconnect with our neighbors by joining a western regional transmission organization.
This approach creates a competitive marketplace that spans across multiple states, utilizing an organized and connected electricity grid to purchase the lowest cost power and deliver it in the most efficient way. Most of the U.S., more than 65% of the population lives in a jurisdiction with a regional transmission organiztion. Colorado is behind the times.
Imagine if all the utilities in the state had to compete with each other to build new transmission projects, thus ensuring that customers were able to purchase the least-cost and most reliable power. Now imagine if this marketplace included the utilities and power providers in six or more Western states — that is the free market competition that we’re trying to create.
So how exactly would this work? We propose that this process would unfold in two main phases:
The first phase is building out transmission lines through the new transmission authority. Right now we are underutilizing our energy production. Specifically, places like the Western Slope, San Luis Valley, and the southeastern plains have high potential for solar and wind — the least cost energy resources — but these areas are underdeveloped because there is little capacity to connect them to the rest of the grid.
Developing transmission corridors to connect these regions to the grid will provide numerous employment opportunities — an estimated 67 jobs per mile of transmission line. Additionally, these areas will be able to develop energy resources, creating even more jobs and providing low cost power to the grid as we together invest billions in new renewable capacity and energy storage.
Second, Colorado needs to coordinate with surrounding states to develop a western regional transmission organization. By developing an interconnected grid, we will not only be able to increase competition and ensure least cost power delivery, we’ll also be able to enhance grid reliability. In our current system, there are a few power providers that share resources, but they must constantly negotiate and barter with one another to sell power back and forth in bi-lateral, short term agreements. In an RTO, that interstate commerce is instantaneous.
Say that it’s a particularly windy day in New Mexico. They’ll be able to sell their excess wind energy to Wyoming, replacing their need for expensive coal power. If it’s an especially sunny day in Colorado and cloudy in Utah, we can sell our excess solar power across the border. This immediate delivery of the lowest cost power will save consumers money and help prevent rolling blackouts like Texas and California have experienced over the past few years.
While these goals will certainly take some time to achieve, the longer we wait, the more benefits we’ll be missing out on. The time to act is now, and that is why we are proud to introduce SB 72. Colorado can and should be an innovative leader in determining how the future of the energy sector will look, and SB-72 is a step in the right direction.