Power shift in the Southwest: Rural electric co-ops in New Mexico, Colorado struggle to meet clean-energy mandates

New Mexico's reliance on Tri-State Generation
(Albuquerque Journal map; click to enlarge it.)

Some rural electric cooperatives in New Mexico and Colorado are struggling to meet new state mandates meant to make their power grids to greener and cheaper. New laws in both states require all co-ops to replace most fossil fuels with renewables over the next two decades and achieve carbon-free power generation by 2050, Kevin Robinson-Avila reports for the Albuquerque Journal.

However, many rural co-ops are running into a problem: they've signed long-term leases with Colorado-based wholesale supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission, which sells electricity to 43 distribution co-ops spread over 200,000 square miles in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. But the co-ops can't meet the energy requirements while buying power from Tri-State, Robinson-Avila reports. Though Tri-State is phasing out coal and is pursuing an "aggressive" green energy plan, there are few specifics on the company's website, so co-ops could be gambling on whether they'll be able to comply with mandates by staying with Tri-State. The company says 30 percent of its electricity comes from renewables.

"The co-ops want freedom to build or purchase a lot more renewable energy independent of Tri-State, which limits self-generation by its member utilities to 5% of their total electric load, meaning 95% of their power must come exclusively from Tri-State under long-term agreements that stretch to 2050," Robinson-Avila reports. Paying a hefty exit fee to then sign with alternative providers . . . is becoming more appealing to some co-ops because they can rapidly integrate renewables onto their grids at potentially lower cost than the wholesale power Tri-State provides."

In addition to its efforts to ditch coal and embrace greener power generation, Tri-State is considering changing its bylaws to give co-op members more flexibility to pursue renewable power on their own while remaining customers, Robinson-Avila reports.