PRPA to host meetings on energy plan

FORT COLLINS — Platte River Power Authority, the wholesale electrical power supplier to Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park and Fort Collins, will host a second round of community listening sessions to update residents and businesses on the status of the organization’s 2020 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). 

The IRP is produced every five years and provides a roadmap for how energy will be generated in the future and delivered to Platte River’s owner communities. While a range of generation resources are evaluated, the plan will focus on identifying noncarbon resources in response to direction provided by Platte River’s board of directors to pursue a 100 percent noncarbon energy mix by 2030. 

“We are committed to evaluating noncarbon energy sources while maintaining our core pillars to provide reliable, environmentally responsible and financially sustainable electricity to our owner communities,” Jason Frisbie, general manager and CEO of Platte River, said in announcing the listening sessions. “As a public power provider, understanding the needs and wants of our owner communities is critical to our resource planning process, and I look forward to sharing our progress.” 

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Currently, about 30 percent of the energy delivered to Platte River’s owner communities comes from noncarbon sources. That number will increase to approximately 50 percent by 2021 with the addition of 225 megawatts of wind power and 22 megawatts of new solar (plus battery storage) capacity. 

The community meeting will feature a summary of resource modeling scenarios, a discussion of key assumptions and results from various impact studies including market analysis, regional economic analysis and distributed energy resources potential, among others. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions of a panel of representatives from Platte River and each community’s utility and offer feedback after the presentation. 

Following is a schedule of events: 

Oct. 16, Longmont Museum, Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, 6–9 p.m. 

Oct. 17, Rialto Theater Center, Devereaux Room, 228 E. Fourth St., Loveland, 6–9 p.m. 

Oct. 23, Ridgeline Hotel, Ballroom/Salon F, 101 S. Saint Vrain Ave., Estes Park, 6–9 p.m. 

Oct. 24, Senior Center, Prairie Sage I & II, 1200 Raintree Drive, Fort Collins, 6–9 p.m. 

For those unable to attend in person, Platte River will stream the events live from its Facebook page.