Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Colorado Springs Utilities

Colorado utilities said a regional grid would strengthen reliability. July 20 tested it.
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado utilities said a regional grid would strengthen reliability. July 20 tested it.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice On April 1, Colorado Springs Utilities and Platte River Power Authority, two of the utilities that initiated SPP's western expansion effort, joined other Colorado utilities in the Southwest Power Pool, a regional grid operator headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Neither utility was legally required to join. Both chose to. Jason Frisbie, Platte River's general manager and CEO, said the move would help his utility "maintain the reliability and affordability that our communities and their customers expect." One hundred and ten days later, Frisbie was asking those same communities to hold off on running their dishwashers. "We are monitoring conditions and working closely with SPP regarding this emergency alert," Fri...
Colorado Lawmakers Move To Extend Coal Plant Operations As Energy Prices Rise
E&E News, State

Colorado Lawmakers Move To Extend Coal Plant Operations As Energy Prices Rise

By Jason Plautz | E&E News A plan to postpone the retirement of the Ray Nixon Power Plant comes as Colorado wrestles with its climate targets. CLIMATEWIRE | Colorado lawmakers are poised to extend the life of a coal plant three years beyond a state-mandated retirement deadline — a backtrack that underscores Colorado's growing tension between climate goals and energy affordability. Under state law, Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) was required to shutter the Ray Nixon Power Plant by the end of 2029, part of the state’s effort to fully move away from coal power by 2031 and run a 100 percent renewable energy grid by 2040. But the process of replacing the plant with renewable sources has proven more expensive and time-consuming than anticipated, and CSU h...
Colorado Energy Mandates Drive Rising Costs And Reliability Concerns
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Energy Mandates Drive Rising Costs And Reliability Concerns

By Complete Colorado Staff | Complete Colorado In a recent episode of Independence Institute’s* energy podcast, PowerGab, hosts Jake Fogelman and Amy Cooke argue that ‘green’ energy mandates are driving up Colorado energy prices and threatening grid reliability, while environmental groups and progressive media outlets try to obscure the role renewables play in rising utility costs. A major topic of the show is a proposal allowing, among other things, Colorado Springs Utilities to delay retirement of the Ray Nixon coal plant if shutting it down on schedule would harm reliability or impose unreasonable costs. As the hosts note, the plant remains essential, supplying about 25% of Colorado Springs’ electricity, while replacement generation has proven far more expensive than ...
EPA reasserts control over Colorado’s coal phaseout amid grid concerns
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

EPA reasserts control over Colorado’s coal phaseout amid grid concerns

By Michael Booth | Colorado Sun Colorado Springs Utilities is already considering delays to a closure scheduled for 2029, while governor says state is moving beyond coal Trump administration rollbacks of key state anti-pollution policies continued this week, with the EPA telling Colorado it can’t set deadlines for coal power plant closures under Clean Air Act rules. Colorado Springs Utilities is already using the ruling to consider extending its Nixon 1 unit in Fountain past a planned December 2029 closure, and environmental groups decried the EPA ruling as a “shocking” warning of looming assaults on anti-pollution laws. “There’s every reason to be concerned that this proposal could be the opening salvo of a broader attack on Colorado’s efforts to move away from costly and dirt...