Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Tri-State Generation And Transmission

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...
Federal Order Keeps Craig Coal Plant Ready As Power Demand Tests Grid
The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

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

By Michael Booth | The Colorado Sun Tri-State still doesn’t want to burn fuel at the northwestern Colorado plant, but is under emergency federal orders. 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 Col...