Can renewables from SE Colorado go east?

State group goes in with other organizations to explore transmission to Oklahoma & Arkansas

by Allen Best

The Colorado agency created by state legislators in 2021 to go where the state’s utilities might not is doing just that.

The Colorado Electric Transmission Authority has joined with two other organizations to pursue federal money that could result in transmission of electricity from wind- and solar-rich southeastern Colorado.

Instead of the energy being shipped to the Front Range, the Heartland Spirit Connector would deliver electricity to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Cost is estimated at $8 billion. The prime sponsors of Heartland are the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and NextEra Energy Transmission.

Southeastern Colorado, particular Baca County, is resource rich but transmission poor. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has identified that corner of Colorado as having the best winds for electrical generation in Colorado. It’s also a very sunny place. Corn grown in that area around Springfield and Walsh requires a third more water than do corn fields 250 miles north near Holyoke.

New Mexico’s Renewable Energy Transmission Authority in March approved a resolution in support.

Photo: Fred and Kay Lynn Hefley. who farm near Walsh, in far southeastern Colorado, have been promoting wind energy for 20 years.

The Colorado Electric Transmission Authority, or CETA, was modeled upon the agency in New Mexico. It was given the responsibility — and important powers — to create transmission where utilities might not but which is important to fulfill Colorado’s energy transition goals.

An April 11 memorandum from Maury Galbraith, CETA’s executive director (and sole employee), and other directors described Heartland as a “transformative interregional transmission project.”

Three aspects of the project stand out. One is that it will have 740 miles of high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) lines with capacity of 640 kV, plus or minus, plus 175 miles of more conventional 345 kV AC lines.

HVDC lines are far more efficient at transmitting electricity for longer distances than alternating current lines. They lose about 50% less electricity in line loss over 620 miles as compared to AC lines. The technology remains relatively uncommon in the United States, which has just 3% of the world’s HVDC lines.

Also notable is that the project proposes to create three new bridges between the Western Interconnection and the Eastern Interconnect grids. As students of electricity know, the United States has three electric grids: East, West and Texas. The seam between East and West is along the Colorado border. There are seven places in the United States and one in Canada where electricity can be transmitted between east and west. One of those seven is in Colorado, just north of Lamar.

Picture these places as being like gates in long fences — but very narrow gates. Three new portals identified in this project would add 3.6 gigawatts of transfer capacity across the East-West seam. That would be triple existing capacity.

This could enable approximately two gigawatts of wind and solar development in southeastern Colorado, according to the memo to CETA directors.

This transfer capacity would unlock a pathway for Colorado utilities to join a regional transmission organization, as they are required to do by 2030. Tri-State Generation and Transmission and several others have joined with Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool in a precursor to that full market participation.

This plan would connect substations within Colorado to the Southwest Power Pool in Oklahoma and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator in Arkansas.

CETA’s proposed budget for 2025 through 2032, when the new transmission would be complete, is $3.2 million.

This bears watching. Also relevant is what Xcel Energy proposes in its next set of plans. It had proposed a transmission line into southeastern Colorado at a cost of $1.7 billion. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission rejected that but did not shut the door forever. It might be in the Xcel application that is due June 1.

Why support Big Pivots?

You need and value solid climate change reporting, and also the energy & water transitions in Colorado. Because you know that strong research underlies solid journalism, and research times take.

Plus, you want to help small media, and Big Pivots is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

Big grants would be great, but they’re rare for small media. To survive, Big Pivots needs your support. Think about how big pivots occur. They start at the grassroots. That’s why you should support Big Pivots. Because Big Pivots has influence in Colorado, and Colorado matters in the national conversation.