Two big DOE grants for transmission in southern Colorado

Alamosa County will use funding to study three routes to and from the San Luis Valley

by Allen Best

Lori Laske was ready to talk on Saturday morning when called about the $1.7 million grant awarded to Alamosa County two days prior by the U.S. Department of Energy.

“I have been doing the happy dance for two days,” she said.

Laske is an Alamosa County commissioner. The only doorway for electricity in and out of that and other counties in Colorado’s San Luis Valley lies to the north, across Poncha Pass. Both Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association maintain lines across the pass.

Not only does that leave the valley vulnerable to outages, as occurred during a snowstorm in May, it may well limit the export of solar energy. With its high elevation and, even by Colorado standards, uncommonly sunny skies, the potential for solar development is huge.

Side by side with this potential is the deteriorating water situation. To remain in compliance with the interstate compact governing the Rio Grande, the San Luis Valley needs to reduce water use. Colorado legislators in 2023 appropriated $30 million to a water district to help secure commitments from farmers to take land out of production. Solar might help fill in some of the economic gaps for Alamosa and other counties in the valley.

Xcel Energy and Tri-State cooperated in an effort to erect a new transmission line eastward across La Veta Pass. A wealthy landowner, Louis Bacon, who owns crucial land on the pass, rejected the idea in 2011 and so the idea slumbered.

A much larger federal grant, $9.5 million, was awarded to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and the Lamar-based Southeast Colorado Enterprise Development Inc., a six-county effort. This project, according to the federal government statement, is to secure benefits for communities impacted by development of the Three Corners Connector.

Grid United, the company behind the Three Corners Connector, proposes to build a 300-mile transmission line from Pueblo across southeast Colorado, picking up renewable generation along the way to send to Guymon, Okla. It has in mind a 525-kilovolt high-voltage direct current transmission line. The power could ultimately end up not only in Oklahoma but Arkansas. Both states lie in the Eastern Interconnection Grid, while Colorado is in the Western Interconnection Grid. The portals between the two are few and slender. Colorado has just one, at May Valley, north of Lamar.

Big Pivots will provide more information about this grant and also the Three Corners Connector when it becomes available.

Both grants were made possible by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Alamosa’s grant comes from the program for siting and permitting. The grant for southeastern Colorado is for economic development. Colorado was the only state to get funding for projects on both sides of the ledger.

The grant to Alamosa County will allow it to conduct an analysis and extensive community engagement around three potential transmission corridors:

One possibility is a line going north, b

The San Luis Valley must curtail water consumption, and development of solar could help replace the economic loss. .

ut instead of across Poncha Pass and down to the Salida-Buena Vista area, this route would cross Cochetopa Pass and into the Gunnison Basin, eventually tying into existing transmission lines in the Montrose area.

A second possibility that will be examined is a power line heading south toward Ojo Caliente and Taos in New Mexico. Alamosa County is working with New Mexico energy authorities in this.

A third candidate is another attempt to cross La Veta Pass and down to Walsenburg, eventually linking to the Colorado Power Pathway, Xcel Energy’s big loop through the eastern part of the state.

Given Bacon’s veto of transmission crossing his property at La Veta Pass, might this study look at undergrounding the transmission line? Now, 13 years after Bacon’s rejection, the environment is a little different, said Laske. “I don’t know what the conversations would be. That’s why the emphasis is on stakeholder engagement.”

Other possible routes might also be identified, she said.

The county will not be getting the money until October, later than it had hoped. It had hoped for 18 months for the evaluation and engagement, wrapping up in December 2025. It will seek an extension of a month or two. It has selected a contractor but made no formal commitment, awaiting to get cash in hand.

Laske said the work that Alamosa County plans coordinates well with the principles for engagement being drawn up by the Colorado Energy Transmission Authority, or CETA.

In its application, Alamosa said it wanted to look to the future, examining the prospects of a 345-kV line. That may be more than what is needed now, but maybe not in the future as electric vehicles begin to proliferate and more housing is transformed from natural gas and propane to electricity.

“This is our once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Laske. “It has never happened before and it will never happen again. I don’t even think most people know where Alamosa, Colorado, is.”