In a nutshell, Tri-State sold too much of its existing capacity to other utilities. Leaving it short over the next few years.
Summary
In a nutshell, Tri-State sold too much of its existing capacity to other utilities, leaving it short over the next few years. Now Tri-State may compound the mistake and raise rates further by building expensive units that solve neither a short-term nor a long-term problem. None of Tri-State’s several load forecasts justifies the three pulverized coal units contained in its resource plan. The coal units cannot help Tri-State overcome any short-term resource deficit, which was mostly a result of Tri-State having sold a portion of its capacity to other utilities. Over the longer term, Tri-State does not need any of the new units to meet member loads, since the resource deficit, at worst, appears to be roughly 500 MW in 2019. This deficit, if any, can be more cheaply and easily met by investments in energy efficiency and other alternative resources. Yet, unless Tri-State members act now, Tri-State is on track to build these units and impose unprecedented rate increases of as much as 160% on its members and their owners. We urge Tri-State members to let Tri-State know that it they will not stand for these developments, starting by rejecting the RDP and refusing to execute the 10-year contract extension that Tri-State seeks to enable financing of the RDP. 30 90? Owner set ee acknowledged. There is abundant information as to how to model intermittent resources so as to integrate the capacity value of these resources into the Tri-State system and to reduce imbalance payments that may become due when the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine.
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