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Tri-State and Duke Energy Team Up on New Colorado Wind Power Project

Posted on: Monday, 6 July 2009, 11:00 CDT

WESTMINSTER, Colo., July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- In keeping with its efforts to diversify its resource portfolio to meet the power requirements of its 44 member distribution cooperatives, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has signed a 20-year agreement with a subsidiary of Duke Energy Corp. to purchase the output of a new 51-megawatt wind farm to be built in east-central Colorado.

"This wind power project is an important part of our near-term strategy to diversify our portfolio with renewable resource that complement our fleet of baseload generation," said Ken Anderson, Tri-State's executive vice president and general manager. "It also keeps us ahead of targets to meet renewable energy standards on behalf of our member co-ops."

The Kit Carson Windpower Project, named for the county in which it will be sited, will be comprised of 34 1.5-megawatt General Electric turbines to be erected on a 6,000-acre site northwest of Burlington, Colo. - within the service territory of Tri-State member co-op K.C. Electric Association. "We are glad that Tri-State has chosen this site for its new wind farm," said John Huppert, general manager of K.C. Electric. "It calls attention to the fact that areas served by the region's electric cooperatives are ideally suited for the development of renewable resource projects."

"The Kit Carson Windpower Project will generate reliable energy, create clean-energy jobs and provide long-term economic benefits for Kit Carson County," Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said. "This is another important step forward for Colorado's New Energy Economy and will be a boon for the Eastern Plains, which are blessed with rich and abundant wind resources. I congratulate Tri-State and Duke Energy for taking this innovative step forward and helping Colorado to continue building our New Energy Economy."

"Duke Energy is pleased to be able to help Tri-State bring clean, renewable wind power to the customers of its member cooperatives," said David Marks, senior vice president for wind energy at Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), a business unit of Duke Energy that owns and develops renewable energy assets.

No new transmission facilities will be required to the Tri-State system; the wind project will be directly connected to an existing Tri-State 230-kilovolt line between substations located near the towns of Limon and Burlington.

"Being able to connect to our existing transmission system helps get the project online within 18 months," Anderson said. "We'll continue to invest in new transmission resources that will support further development of renewable energy projects."

Duke Energy will construct, own, operate and provide all maintenance services on the facility, which is scheduled to be in service by the end of 2010. Construction will begin in June 2010 with a workforce of about 150 people on site during the peak construction period. A permanent staff of four to eight technicians will operate the wind farm.

The wind project is the second utility-scale renewable energy development to be announced by Tri-State this year. In March, Tri-State and Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar entered into an agreement to develop a 30-megawatt solar generating facility in northeast New Mexico. Construction of that facility is scheduled to start in April 2010; it is expected to be fully operational at the same time as the Kit Carson Windpower Project.

Based in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Tri-State is the wholesale power supplier to 44 electric cooperatives and public power districts in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Nebraska. The member distribution systems serve nearly 593,000 consumer-meters, which translates to a population of approximately 1.4 million end-use consumers.

Duke Energy is the third largest electric power holding company in the United States, based on kilowatt-hour sales. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 4 million customers located in five states - representing a population of approximately 11 million people. Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), part of Duke Energy's Commercial Power business, delivers on-site energy solutions and utility services to customers throughout the U.S. In addition, DEGS owns and operates most of Duke Energy's renewable power assets, including its interests in wind energy and biopower. DEGS manages 6,300 megawatts of power generation at 21 facilities in the United States.

SOURCE Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association

Source: PR Newswire

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