Most people don’t sit around thinking about the electric grid. It hums along in the background — reliable, affordable and invaluable to our way of life — perhaps it’s even taken for granted. But behind our light switches is a sprawling, complex system that’s undergoing a significant transition, with advancements for the better that can transform how your power flows across the West.
One important advancement is the expansion of a regional transmission organization, or RTO, operated by the not-for-profit Southwest Power Pool, known as SPP, into our part of the West. This sounds technical and wonky, and it is, but the heart of the matter is simple: It’s about utilities working smarter together as members of SPP to deliver electricity more reliably and affordably to people across parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and beyond.
We are a generation and transmission cooperative of 43 members, including 40 electric distribution cooperatives and public power districts in four states that together provide power to more than a million people across nearly 200,000 square miles of the West.
When Tri-State launched our energy transition five years ago, we knew it had to be much more than just adding more renewable resources. It had to include improvements to our systems that coordinate and deliver power.
Utilities can’t just plug in power plants and expect everything to work seamlessly all the time. The electric grid is more like a living organism — dynamic and interconnected. When one part changes, everything else must adapt.
In support of our transition and to have a more efficient electric grid, Tri-State has joined with other utilities and transmission providers, and worked with stakeholders that have an interest in the grid, to plan our participation in the SPP RTO, which is a coordinated market that helps power flow more freely across the West.
Think of it as replacing a patchwork of toll roads with an efficient, well-planned interstate highway system, but for electricity. Instead of each utility balancing its own supply and demand for power, the organization balances energy across a large region — minute by minute. The RTO also looks a day ahead, ensuring that the lowest cost resources will be utilized, while also helping utilities in states like Colorado meet emissions reduction goals more cost-effectively.
Importantly, Southwest Power Pool is focused on how to more efficiently connect new resources to the grid. Add to that a collaborative process within the RTO to plan and build new transmission as needed and all this coordination means greater reliability and lower costs.
Part of our energy transition is reducing carbon emissions and shifting toward even more low-cost renewables. But intermittent sources like wind and solar require flexibility — and that’s what a regional transmission organization provides. By pooling resources and balancing them over a wide geographic area, the organization can better handle the variability of renewable power. The RTO does this while helping us track our emissions and helping us meet reporting requirements.
The benefits of a RTO are meaningful. Tri-State expects approximately $20 million in net annual savings, with over $200 million each year in potential regional benefits. That’s real money that can help us manage costs to support affordable rates for rural co-ops and consumers already feeling the pinch of rising costs.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect is just how much work this has taken. Tri-State has been laying the groundwork for years, becoming a member of Southwest Power Pool in the eastern grid in 2015, helping launch the SPP Western Energy Imbalance Service in 2021, and now working with other utilities, stakeholders, SPP and regulators as we prepare for the integration of part of our western grid system into the SPP RTO next year.
Federal regulators have already approved the expansion of the SPP RTO into the West. We are asking the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to affirm that the organization meets the requirements of the state law — Senate Bill 72 from 2021 — directing utilities to join an RTO by 2030 and that Tri-State’s participation is in the public interest.
From where I sit, that seems like an easy yes. If we want a grid that’s more resilient, more cost effective and more compatible with state goals, this is exactly the kind of regional collaboration we need.
That’s something worth paying attention to — even if you usually don’t think about the grid at all.
Duane Highley, of Erie, is the CEO of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.
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