The new Colorado Electric Transmission Authority has muscle to build transmission it thinks necessary to help Colorado achieve its clean energy goals — but only if nobody else wants to do so. Where might that be?
Story/photos Allen Best
Almost two years since legislation was passed to create the Colorado Electric Transmission Authority, directors of the new state agency have now held several meetings, including one during April with its first executive director, and will soon begin assembling a list of 10 to 15 potential transmission projects.
The legislation, however, specified that CETA would itself develop transmission only if unable to find somebody else to undertake the transmission that authority directors believe necessary to help Colorado achieve its decarbonization goals.
Maury Galbraith, the executive director, says the legislation specifically prohibits the agency from competing directly with other transmission providers.
“CETA is not here to compete with Tri-State Generation and Transmission or Xcel Energy or the Western Area Power Authority in building transmission,” he said in an interview. “The legislation prohibits that kind of direct competition. CETA is not allowed to plan, finance, or construct transmission that another entity has indicated it is pursuing. “
What CETA can do, he says, is announce what projects it believes are necessary and see if one of those utilities wants to step up.
“If somebody else steps forward, then CETA steps back,” he said. “If nobody else steps forward, then CETA has the authority to be the developer of last resort.”
CETA has the power to identify and establish corridors for the transmission of electricity within Colorado and to negotiate with entities outside Colorado for the establishment of interstate transmission corridors. The agency may also work with utilities in developing incremental transmission or add-on projects.
SB21-072 created CETA and stipulated governance by a nine-member board appointed by legislative leaders and the governor but always including a representative of the Colorado Energy Office.
The law also requires Colorado’s utilities to join a regional wholesale market by 2030 or give the Colorado Public Utilities Commission very good reasons why they have not.
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Some have argued for more emphasis on decentralized electrical generation and also demand response as the first priorities in decarbonizing the electrical grid, fearing too much investment in transmission.
Galbraith sees need for both if Colorado is to achieve its goal of 100% emissions-free electricity by 2040.
“To get all the way to 100% clean, you can’t really do it alone (with local generation and storage), he said. “The problem with local is if you are heavily dependent on local generation from wind or solar and the wind doesn’t blow or you get a cloudy winter, then what do you do? You need that transmission to assess the other areas where the wind is blowing and the sun is shining.”
A wholesale market can align this flow of low-priced and renewable energy with demands.
In creating the agency, legislators gave it significant authority, modeling it on the New Mexico Renewable Transmission Authority, which was created in 2007.
Colorado has far more demand for electricity than New Mexico, a reflection of its larger population: 5.9 million vs. 2.5 million. As such, says Galbraith, New Mexico’s transmission authority is geared more toward exporting renewable energy while CETA will have more opportunities to build transmission to meet demand within Colorado.
CETA can also try to better connect Colorado with other parts of the Western electrical grid, called the Western Interconnection, and conceivably the Eastern Interconnection, too, if a good reason can be found to do so. Connections between the two grids already exist, one of them in Colorado, northeast of Lamar, but they are best understood as very narrow doors, one you have to hold your breath and suck in your tummy if you hope to slide through. They could be expanded, but that takes money.
Maury Galbraith
Prior to joining CETA, Galbraith was with the Denver-based Western Interstate Energy Board . That institution is directed by appointees of the governors from each of the 11 Western states and premiers of the two Canadian provinces. During Galbraith’s eight-plus years there, the board worked with energy offices and utility regulators in those jurisdictions on three core missions.
One was to help develop a wholesale energy market in the West. It also focused on resource adequacy, to ensure that as fossil fuels were displaced by renewables that utilities still had the ability to keep the lights on. That takes regional cooperation. The board also tried to improve interregional planning policies.
The board had little power other than that of persuasion, said Galbraith. CETA can also attempt to persuade, but legislators also gave it two very powerful tools: the power of eminent domain and the authority to issue revenue bonds.
“I think there is recognition, not only at the federal level but at the state level, certainly so in Colorado, that there is a need for transmission not only to achieve Colorado’s clean energy goals but to improve electric grid reliability and resilience and provide some cost savings to customers—if we are able to better interconnect Colorado with others areas of the West,” said Galbraith.
Northwest Colorado will be one potential place of study. Many transmission lines already emanate from the Yampa Valley, owing to the two coal-burning power plants at Hayden and Craig.
Might Colorado get better connected to the PacifiCorp tangle of wires between Wyoming across the Pacific Northwest? If so, Colorado could potentially tap into the hydroelectric power of that area, points out Galbraith.
Colorado’s San Luis Valley is another obvious area for CETA focus. With both high elevation and ample sunshine, the valley has abundant solar potential. It also has need to curb water consumption and hence agriculture production in order to comply with the Rio Grande Compact.
Export of that solar power from the San Luis Valley via conventional overhead transmission lines across La Veta Pass was blunted about a decade ago by wealthy landowner Louis Bacon. It could still be exported by other routes.
CETA plans to apply for a grant whose proceeds would allow a contractor to be hired to study those alternative routes. Alternatives include routes both south and west as well as north across Poncha Pass.
Diminishing hydroelectric production from the federal government’s giant dams also plays into transmission planning. Production at Glen Canyon, for example, dropped 20% prior to this year. If not for last summer’s unusual rains and this winter’s bountiful snows, levels of Lake Powell might have dropped so low that the dam’s generators would be unable to produce electricity by now.
That hydro production has helped balance the grid and obviously provided emissions-free electricity.
If Powell is filling again, at least this year, the continued risk of losing Glen Canyon Dam’s hydroelectric production strengthens the case for creating a more robust grid that connects a geographic diversity of renewable generation.
CETA can also interact with the federal government in ways that Galbraith believes could put Colorado at the center of an interconnected national electric grid, midway between the wind farms of Iowa and the solar farms of California.
The U.S. Department of Energy is designating National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. The key criterion for identifying the need for these designations is how they would relieve present and future congestion. CETA will likely provide input and advice —and might be able to gain access to the $4.5 billion in combined funding made available by the 2002 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for the development of electric transmission lines.
Also in play is the Big Wires Act, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and U.S. Rep. Scott Peters of California, both Democrats. The bill argues that construction of transmission in North America has stagnated since 2014, lagging the progress made in both Europe and in China. The bill would require regions to transfer at least 30% of their peak electricity demand between each other. To meet this mandate, regions could build new transmission lines.
Democrats had hoped to get this folded into the debt ceiling bill passed this week by Congress. The Washington Post on June 2 reported that key Republicans balked, arguing that the 30% requirement was too strict. Instead, they agreed to a study to be conducted by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation during the next 18 months to study transfer capacity between regions.
As for staffing, Galbraith hopes to add one or two staff members in the next year. The agency has a $500,000 annual allocation specified by the enabling legislation. It can also collect “reasonable” rates, fees, and so forth from others using these “eligible facilities.”
New Mexico’s older but parallel agency has been able to end its dependency on state funds, reported Galbraith after a visit to Santa Fe. Colorado may pursue a similar approach of seeking partnership contributions with transmission developers as well as pursuing federal grant opportunities. Needed will be clear policies governing under what terms and conditions CETA would accept funding from partners to avoid any real or perceived conflicts of interest. “That is something the board needs to start thinking about,” he said.
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I hope that CETA doesn’t get too “silo-ed” on transmission. There is the concept of Storage-As-a-Transmission-Asset. And great potential for load shedding and valley filling, now know more attractively as Virtual Power Plants.
Both are coming on stronger in territories served by more freewheeling markets, particularly storage in Texas, where variations in prices over a day and at congested nodes blast up and down. Without these price signals, these options don’t look as attractive in CO.
I’m no PHD, but I’ve looked at some of the studies, particularly Jesse Jenkins at Princeton, which show massive transmission “needed.” My reading is that “needed” really means, “For an absolute 100% clean grid, ginormous transmission provides the ‘optimum’ result, meaning absolute minimum price to consumers, given xyz set of assumptions/inputs about costs and loads.”
So other assumptions/inputs, or looking at results that weren’t quite the minimum cost, or allowing 5,10,15% backup from fossil power plants, might lead to less transmission “needed.”
One specific; I think we may already be past the point where there is all this hydropower available from the NW when we might be short. In the last five years data centers and bitcoin mines have located up there to soak up that cheap power. Other dispatchable loads are contemplated, which would compete with power exports.