The unanimous vote last week by members of La Plata Electric Association’s board to double the amount of electricity from renewables is an indication of the changing mood locally, as well as nationally, toward fossil fuels. An increase from 5 percent to 10 percent in what could be permitted by LPEA’s wholesale supplier, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, may be modest, but it is a sign of the fast-changing times.
Facing pressure from vocal individuals, including a few board members, to increase the share of renewables to a much higher percentage, 10 percent is a logical mid-term goal.
Tri-State now will have to approve the request, and that is not certain. It is in the midst of a regular effort to consider changes to its contracts with its 43 local co-ops, and is expected to standardize contract components and language. While LPEA is one of the largest co-ops and has been one of the most progressive, Tri-State’s governing board consists of a member from each co-op and has to be mindful of every co-op’s needs.
To repay the loans which were needed to construct its power plants and major distribution lines, Tri-State needs to sell a certain amount of power, which is largely fossil fuel-created. What the local co-ops create from renewables reduces Tri-State’s sales and what it needs to make its bank payments, thus the current 5 percent maximum.
Acquiring the existing 5 percent came easily for LPEA. Almost all of it comes from the Williams natural gas plant west of the airport, which generates heat in its gas-handling process.
The pressure on Tri-State to be increasingly green comes at the same time that the Public Service Company of New Mexico announced that it expects to produce a third of its power from wind and solar by 2025 and to end all reliance on coal by 2031.
Natural gas will figure into PNM’s plans, and it will continue to receive power from a nuclear plant in Arizona, according to a story in the Santa Fe New Mexican. The flight from coal comes because of cost-saving measures.
At Tri-State’s annual meeting in April, it was announced that Tri-State in 2016 produced 26 percent of its power from renewables. Two new solar fields and one wind field had been expected to come on line by 2017.
A representative of the Kit Carson Electric Co-Op (in Taos, New Mexico) attracted a large crowd when he spoke in Durango recently about his co-op’s recent independence from Tri-State. That has permitted Kit Carson to include a sizeable percentage of renewables. But that independence came at a heavy cost to members, as it had to compensate Tri-State for the power it would not be purchasing in the future. LPEA is a much larger co-op and the cost would be much higher, perhaps in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
We hope that Tri-state can recalculate its finances in order to say yes to a 10 percent cap for its member co-ops, or that the change comes with only a minimal increase in rates.
Renewables are here, and they will only get larger.
