The Platte River Power Authority, a behind-the-scenes utility supplying power to 350,000 people in four northern Colorado cities, has long had an innovative plan to transition away from carbon and toward renewable energy. But its updated path to get there is dividing customer opinions.
Should the authority build a bridge to a renewable energy future with an expensive new natural gas-powered electrical plant?
Five years ago, the authority set the bold target of 100% carbon-free generation by 2030, well ahead of most utilities’ pledges to cut 80% of fossil fuel use by that year. The utility, owned by the cities that distribute its power in Fort Collins, Longmont, Loveland and Estes Park, added extensive wind and solar in recent years. But a key to its base power is still the coal-fired Rawhide station north of Wellington, emitting 2 million tons of carbon a year and not scheduled for retirement until 2030.
PRPA is holding public events on revisions to its plan that would get to 88% carbon reductions by 2030. That remains more ambitious than Colorado statutory targets for other utilities of 80% cuts from a 2005 baseline. (As a customer of the Western Area Power Administration for some of its energy needs, PRPA will file its resource plan to that federal agency.)
The plan has raised the ire of environmental groups and some city officials because it pitches a big new gas-fired generator to come online in 2028. The gas-fired plant would serve as reliable backup power while PRPA completes the transition to more wind, solar and utility-scale battery arrays that can hold renewable power for peak demand times.
Here are some questions and answers about the northern Colorado policy debate:
Why would the power authority want a new gas plant when momentum is running away from fossil fuels for electricity?
Platte River Power Authority’s staff says the utility is more committed than ever to becoming a carbon-free generator as soon as it can. The problem, staff analysts say, is that wind and solar will always be intermittent power sources, and promises of new-technology battery arrays that can store wind and solar power for backup are still unproven ideas.
“Long-duration storage is still very conceptual, even today,” PRPA spokesperson Javier Camacho said.
“We have to make sure that we can respond with our resources quickly to match the needs of the customer,” PRPA chief transition and integration officer Raj Setti said Thursday, in presenting an update on the authority’s long-term resource proposal to the board.
“The problem that we are trying to solve is not about megawatts” from gas vs. coal vs. solar, Setti said. “The problem we are solving is, when is that megawatt available?”
The 280-megawatt Rawhide station is scheduled to close by the end of 2029. The authority owns portions of two units at the Craig power station operated by Tri-State Generation, scheduled to close for good in 2025 and 2028.
PRPA currently gets about one-third of its power from renewables, one-third from coal and another third from an older gas-powered station. In recent years, PRPA has contracted for 225 MW of wind power, and 22 MW of solar with some battery storage. Plans are at various stages for hundreds more MW of solar with larger, long-term battery storage.
But after fielding proposals from dozens of contractors, PRPA still sees a gap in reliable power as the coal plants go offline, Camacho said. Most major utilities are keeping or building gas-fired generators as a “dispatchable” or easy-on, fast-off backup supply even as they transition to a majority of renewable sources.
The proposed 200-MW replacement of the current gas plant would have turbines that in the future could run on “green hydrogen” instead of natural gas, meaning hydrogen produced by renewable energy sources and stored for burning later. Green hydrogen burns carbon-free, producing water as a byproduct.
Who is opposing the idea of a new gas plant?
One of the voices asking for at least a slowdown in the gas plant proposal is the Fort Collins Sustainability Group. Kevin Cross, a convener of that group, said opponents don’t want the power authority to commit to a $240 million natural gas plant that consumers would have to pay for in their bills over 30 years, when technology is changing so quickly.
Between now and late 2027, when a new gas plant could be finished, battery storage technology will improve, and more hydrogen research will make advances, Cross said, among other potential boons for renewable energy.
If the cost of building a gas plant proves “to be prohibitively high compared to other options, ratepayers in Fort Collins, Longmont, Loveland and Estes Park could see very high electric bills far into the future,” the opponents said in an open letter to the Fort Collins City Council, which oversees the city’s partial ownership of Platte River Power Authority.
The authority deserves credit for being one of the first major utilities to commit to a 100% carbon-free goal, Cross said. But, he added, “they made some progress initially and right now, they’re not particularly good in terms of renewables. It’s hovered around 33% to 35% renewable electricity since about 2019 to the present. So, you know, not stellar performance.”
A big, expensive gas plant is likely to become a “stranded asset” in utility parlance, Cross said, meaning an outdated or poorly-designed technology that’s no longer needed but which has loans that ratepayers are stuck with for decades.
“We think that they’re moving too fast,” Cross said, and instead should avoid issuing an RFP for new gas plant construction until they file a finished resource plan with federal regulators in 2025. “We think they might learn something in the next half year to a year that would make other technologies look more attractive.”
What are other major Colorado utilities doing to make the clean energy transition?
Whether utilities are moving too slow or too fast to give up coal and natural gas, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is frequently a point of contention.
When Tri-State Generation announced recently it would close the final Craig coal unit two years earlier than planned, environmental groups cheered. But other Colorado residents questioned whether Tri-State had solid building plans and deadlines for the solar, wind or battery power needed to replace Craig and keep homes lighted and warm.
Xcel Energy has also recently proposed accelerating its transition to carbon-free, renewable energy generation. A resource plan filed with the Public Utilities Commission calls for years of massive construction projects in wind farms, solar arrays, innovative large-scale battery backups and entire new transmission corridors to link them all to the grid.
But even some of the consumer groups who are advocates for renewable energy are questioning Xcel’s plan, saying it will add billions of dollars in costs to Xcel’s rate base that consumers will have to pay back over decades of billing increases.
What will happen next in northern Colorado?
The PRPA board, made up of the city mayors, has tentatively approved the direction proposed by staff in seeking a new natural gas plant as part of their bridge to the future. However, some of the mayors have raised the same questions of long-term commitments to old technology, and they’re hearing it from some of their constituents.
The PRPA staff will present a final draft of the future resource plan in March, Camacho said. They’ll take public and board comments into account and issue revisions in April. The goal is to have a final plan to the Western Area Power Administration in July, Camacho said.
Cross and others will keep raising questions about natural gas through all of those stations, he said.
“We see this as potentially a pretty big blunder,” Cross said.