TRI-HARDER

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Tri-State to receive hundreds of millions of dollars from US Government's Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy expansion and decarbonization!

Rural Colorado power provider in line for “enormously beautiful” share of $9.7 billion in federal funding for clean energy expansion and decarbonization

Tri-State eligible for $679 million from the Inflation Reduction Act’s New ERA program for new wind, solar, efficiency and grid modernization and to replace uneconomic coal plants

WESTMINSTER – Nearly a year after Tri-State Generation and Transmission submitted its notice of intent to apply for $970 million in grants and low-interest loans through the Inflation Reduction Act’s New ERA (Empowering Rural America) program, President Biden on Thursday announced that it is indeed in line for a sizeable chunk of funding, as are two other Colorado power providers: United Power and CORE Electric.

Biden spoke in Wisconsin, unveiling the first recipient of $9.7 billion that is being distributed to rural electric cooperatives through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS). Tri-State is among 15 other large co-ops named as “finalists” for funding, and the agency has carved out $679 million in budget authority to support 18 clean energy and coal retirement projects it has proposed. The administration has yet to announce up to $4 billion more in New ERA funding earmarked for small- and medium-size co-ops. A number of Tri-State member co-ops, including San Miguel Power, La Plata Electric and Poudre Valley have applied for grants and loans from that appropriation.

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Tri-State is eligible for up to $970 million in New ERA program support, and a substantial portion of that funding can be used to pay down tens of millions of dollars in undepreciated – or stranded – costs in fossil fuel infrastructure that is no longer economic to operate – and which member cooperatives are stuck covering costs for decades more.

Applying the low and no-interest loans available through the New ERA program to the Springerville coal plant in Arizona, for example, could easily save member co-ops tens of millions of dollars in interest alone, let alone the huge principal on a plant that doesn’t provide any jobs or local economic benefits in Colorado or the rest of Tri-State’s service territory.

There would be sizable savings in energy costs as well. Power from the Springerville plant is as much as three times as expensive as what it would cost to replace it with new solar projects. Even with battery storage added, replacement power is 25% less expensive than power from the coal plant. Those savings, carried across the expected life of the plant in the late 2030s, could easily climb to the tens of millions of dollars.

Closing Springerville could lead to more clean energy projects across members' communities as well, generating millions in local revenue