Federal Order Keeps Craig Coal Plant Ready As Power Demand Tests Grid

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun

A reluctant Tri-State Generation and Transmission is now burning coal and sending electricity out onto the grid from its Craig Unit 1, after the Western power grid authority said potential for outages at other plants meant the northwestern Colorado power is needed to balance regional resources. 

Tri-State had long planned to shutter Craig 1 for good at the end of 2025, but federal emergency orders from the Trump administration required the co-op to instead to keep the generating unit in good repair and available to operate. Craig 1 had been available but idle in the first months of 2026, while Tri-State, the Colorado attorney general and environmental groups all fight the Department of Energy emergency orders in court. 

At the end of March, the DOE extended its first 90-day emergency order for another three months. 

Then on April 1, Tri-State and other utilities in the area switched their regional power coordinator to the Southwest Power Pool’s Western Interconnection, which serves to balance electricity supply and demand across multiple states and can call on individual power plants to start up when needed. 

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