Poudre Valley REA joins state commission battle over Tri-State exits

FORT COLLINS and DENVER — Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association Inc. is entering a legal battle between Westminster’s Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. and two of its customers over who has authority to cancel wholesale-power agreements.

In filings to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Friday, Tri-State said the state doesn’t have authority to regulate it because of Congressional pre-emptions in the Federal Power Act. It also requested that the state pause litigation while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hears the arguments between Tri-State and its clients.

Durango-based La Plata Electric Association Inc. and Brighton-based United Power Inc. petitioned state regulators to intervene in November, saying Tri-State is refusing to give them and other members quotes for exit fees while it tries to become a federally regulated entity instead of one subject to regulators in states in which it operates. Tri-State has previously argued that the co-ops are using their complaints to strengthen their bargaining position as other Tri-State clients make new rules about ending contracts.

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Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

Additionally, PVREA filed a motion to intervene in LPEA and United Power’s cases, saying the outcome of those cases could allow other Tri-State members to leave en masse and leave remaining co-ops with long-term deals to shoulder a larger financial burden.

PVREA member relations manager David White told BizWest that the co-op doesn’t believe it can rely on either Tri-State or the other two co-ops to represent its interests or avoid a damaging precedent.

“If the (Public Utilities Commission) is going to make a ruling, they need to make that for all the Tri-State members, not just two,” he said.

LPEA and United Power made up about 21.8 percent of Tri-State’s revenue in 2019. Tri-State currently counts 43 member co-ops in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and New Mexico.