Monthly Archive for June, 2010

Local community leaders tour inner workings of Kit Carson wind turbines

Published on June 29, 2010 in Public Outreach and Renewable Energy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Tri-State and Duke Energy hosted local officials at the Kit Carson Windpower site near Burlington, Colo., on Friday, June 25 and provided a tour of the project area, which included a rare opportunity to climb inside one of the 265 ft.-high, General Electric turbines. Among the attendees were representatives from Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and local media outlets, as well Kit Carson county commissioners and land commissioners.

All 34 turbines have been erected and are scattered throughout the 6,000-acre site. Roads connect each turbine location and the visitors were able drive through the site while crews were completing some of the remaining activities. The project required nearly 150 construction personnel.

Duke Energy has completed its operations and maintenance building and is nearing completion of its substation. Tri-State recently broke ground on its adjacent Landsman Creek switching station that will interconnect the project to its transmission system.

Colo. Touchstone Energy cooperatives team up to support the kids of St. Jude’s

Published on June 18, 2010 in Public Outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Today, June 18, Tri-State and four of its Colorado Front Range Touchstone Energy member cooperatives are teaming up with KYGO radio and country music entertainers from across the country in an effort to raise funds for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The 2010 Country Cares radiothon will air live on KYGO – 98.5 on the FM dial as well as streaming at www.kygo.com – all day, giving listeners a chance to call in their donations for the world-renown medical facility.

Along with supporting an incredibly worthwhile cause and putting into action one of Touchstone Energy’s core values – commitment to community – the participating cooperatives receive more than two weeks’ worth of promotional mentions and 60-second radio spots on KYGO. Not only do the commercials highlight the co-ops’ support of St. Jude’s and promote the ongoing national Touchstone Energy “Together We Save” campaign, they also include a thank-you and “shout-out” to the co-ops from some of country music’s biggest stars, such as Taylor Swift, Dierks Bentley and Trace Adkins.

Although it’s based in Memphis, Tenn., the hospital treats children with life-threatening illnesses from all over the country – including from throughout Tri-State’s member system service territory. And it does so with no cost to the patients’ families, beyond what they can afford and their insurance covers, thanks to fundraising efforts such as this radiothon.

Participating in this project along with Tri-State are United Power, Mountain View Electric, Poudre Valley REA and Morgan County REA.

NM Association of Counties recognizes Tri-State’s contributions to the state

Published on June 17, 2010 in Public Outreach and Renewable Energy. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Tri-State representatives were on hand at the New Mexico Association of Counties annual meeting held in Farmington (San Juan County) June 16-18 to answer questions and demonstrate the association’s presence throughout the state.

More than 500 people were in attendance, which included county commissioners, assessors, treasurers, sheriffs and staff members from New Mexico’s 33 counties. Each year these elected officials and employees gather to address statewide concerns, collaborate on initiatives and adopt policy. Candidates for lieutenant governor also had the opportunity to make appeals to the audience on how they would interact with local governments if elected.

Attendees were most interested in Tri-State’s Cimarron Solar Project under construction in Colfax County and the energy efficiency incentives offered to co-op consumers. McKinley County’s treasurer and other officials were thankful for the jobs and substantial tax base that Tri-State’s Escalante Station provides to the local communities in west-central New Mexico

Youth Tour kicks off in Denver

Published on June 14, 2010 in Public Outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , .

For more than 40 years, electric cooperatives have sponsored high school students from across America to visit the nation’s capitol and meet their members of congress as part of the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association’s Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. Students compete for slots for this unique opportunity and are selected for this program by their local electric cooperative.

To kick off the event, Youth Tour participants from Tri-State’s Colorado service territory met in Denver last week to hear presentations on their G&T, facts about electricity’s affordability, participate in a group project building an electrical grid out of craft supplies and tour the Colorado State Capitol.

From Denver, the Youth Tour participants flew to Washington D.C., where they will spend the next week meeting and visiting with their representatives in the House and the Senate. Students will also visit historic sites, such as the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Mount Vernon, Arlington National Cemetery and the Smithsonian.

The Colorado participants are sponsored by their local electric cooperatives and the trip is coordinated by the Colorado Rural Electric Association. For more information on the youth tour, visit www.youthtour.coop.

Construction underway on Cimarron Solar facility

Published on June 10, 2010 in Public Outreach and Renewable Energy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Officials from Tri-State, Southern Company, Turner Renewable Energy and First Solar gathered on June 9 for a groundbreaking ceremony to officially mark construction of the Cimarron Solar facility in northern New Mexico’s Colfax County.

The Cimarron Solar project will be among the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic plants when it begins commercial operation at the end of the year. The electricity generated at the facility, which will supply power equivalent to meet the needs of approximately 9,000 homes, will be delivered to electric cooperative members of Tri-State, which has a 25-year agreement to purchase the facility’s energy.

“Tri-State is committed to renewable energy in our resource planning that brings value to our member cooperatives across the four states we serve,” said Tri-State executive vice president and general manager Ken Anderson.

Tri-State hosts FFA tours at Craig Station

Published on June 10, 2010 in Public Outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , .

On Tuesday, June 8, Tri-State personnel hosted an orientation, tours and a luncheon for approximately 100 teens from the 82nd Colorado Future Farmers of America Convention that is being held this week in Craig, Colo.

Tri-State is a longstanding sponsor of the organization, which has attracted more than 1,000 high school students to the annual event that is being held primarily at Moffat County High School.

Statewide there are 4,600 members of FFA. To qualify for membership students (ages 14-18) must be enrolled in one of the 100 Colorado high schools that offer courses in agriculture.

Laramie River Station water source filled to capacity

Published on June 3, 2010 in Renewable Energy and Transmission. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Grayrocks Reservoir, the main water source for operations at the 1,702-megawatt Laramie River Station near Wheatland, Wyo., has made an amazing comeback from a dwindling capacity level that had dropped to less than 20 percent a few years ago, to brimming over the spillway at more than 100 percent this spring, according to Wayne Child, who serves on the boards of Basin Electric Power Cooperative (operator of the plant) and Tri-State.

Child provided the good news in his monthly Basin report at the June Tri-State board meeting being held this week in Westminster. He noted that the drought-stricken reservoir had benefited from heavy snowfall and four inches of recent rain in the region.

Tri-State is a 24 percent owner in the plant and the ancillary transmission facilities that comprise the Missouri Basin Power Project. As such, Tri-State receives 410 megawatts of capacity from LRS.

Construction starts on Nucla-Sunshine transmission project

Published on June 2, 2010 in Transmission. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Construction began June 1 on Tri-State’s latest transmission project, the 115-kilovolt Nucla-Sunshine line in southwestern Colorado. The new 51-mile line is scheduled to be completed and energized in 2012.

The transmission line is needed to replace an aging 69-kV line between Nucla and Telluride that is owned by Tri-State member cooperative San Miguel Power Association (SMPA). The line, originally constructed in 1948, is at the end of its useful life, is vulnerable to lightning strikes and is costly to maintain. Additionally, this line cannot support the Telluride area’s electric load during peak energy usage times if the primary source of power serving the Telluride area from Durango is unavailable.

Tri-State will own and operate the new 115-kV line that will replace the 69-kV line. The old line will be removed and the new line will be constructed, following some of the original alignment.

Employee’s article featured in trade pub

Published on June 2, 2010 in Resource Planning and Transmission. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Interested in learning about how Tri-State’s maintenance crews are making use of the latest technologies to boost efficiency and productivity while they are out in the field? Then you will want to read this article featured in the latest edition of Transmission & Distribution World that was written by Tri-State’s own Bruce Kreager, transmission maintenance specialist in Westminster. The following is an excerpt from the article:

More than 5,200 miles of transmission lines cut through Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming. In these four states, more than 35,000 structures provide electricity to Tri-State’s member co-ops across a 250,000 square-mile service territory.

Tri-State owns and manages these lines with the latest mobile and digital technology to ensure that the delivery of power is both safe and reliable. As part of the G&T’s reliability process, line crews and substation technicians perform regular inspections of the transmission infrastructure.

Recent federal regulations have made it critical that these structure and line inspections are carefully recorded and managed. For that reason, Tri-State linemen now use handheld mobile devices to collect valuable information in the field, and record and retrieve data electronically virtually anywhere in the service territory.