Archive for category: Energy Innovations Newsletter

In Durango, nonprofit organizations will have the chance to receive a grant to install and benefit from renewable generation.

Local electric co-op, La Plata Electric Association, has money in its Local Renewable Generation Fund to give back to the communities it serves to help non-profit organizations reduce their electric bills. It is LPEA’s hope that these savings will then help direct money into local organizations’ efforts to serve the community. For 2018, LPEA anticipates granting a total of $40,000 in full and partial grants.

Non-profits that are current consumer-members in good standing in LPEA’s service territory are encouraged to apply by November 1, 2018. More information can be found at www.lpea.coop.

Colorado electric cooperative Highline Electric Association is based in Holyoke and serves consumer-members in northeastern Colorado. Its board of directors recently approved a 1.5-megawatt solar project, to be developed by Denver-based Microgrid Energy.

Construction of the Riverview solar project is expected to begin later this year and go online in mid to late 2019. It will generate approximately 3.8 million kilowatt-hours per year under a 20-year purchased power agreement with Microgrid. The power purchased from the project will enter Highline’s electric distribution system to serve consumers in its service territory.

Highline expects to benefit from guaranteed savings over this 20-year agreement. The co-op is currently evaluating how the Riverview solar project could provide an option for community solar for its members.

The community solar model works well for several other Colorado electric co-ops and provides an opportunity for members to “buy into” and benefit from renewable solar energy with little to no personal financial investment.

The Colorado Rural Electric Association will host its 9th annual Energy Innovations Summit in downtown Denver at the end of October. The conference is open to anyone who is interested in innovative energy subjects. Sponsored in part by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, it features industry leaders, speakers and panelists, as well as vendors and exhibitors.

This year’s topics include: energy efficiency and demand response; forecasting renewable energy; examining energy storage technology; blockchains and the power industry; EV fast charging technology; and community choice aggregation.

Registration is now open and can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/2018-Innovations-Summit

Drivers in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties will again get a chance to “rEV up” their ride and benefit from discounts on the purchase or lease of a plug-in electric vehicle. Colorado electric co-op Holy Cross Energy sponsors this program, which runs until October 31. Last year’s EV sales event led to sales of 42 plug-in electric vehicles.

Six dealerships across Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction participate in the sales event, offering $515 to $1,950 discounts on plug-in electric/gasoline hybrid models and plug-in, all-electric vehicles. Consumers can also combine these discounts with Colorado’s $5,000 Innovative Motor Vehicle income tax credit and a federal tax credit of up to $7,500.

Highline Electric Association, headquartered in Holyoke, serves consumer-members in Phillips, Logan, Sedgwick, Yuma, Washington, Weld and Morgan counties in Colorado, and members in Chase, Dundy, Deuel and Perkins, Nebraska. That’s a lot of counties, but not a lot of consumers. The co-op only has two meters per mile of line and even fewer actual members. The co-op is rural and dependent on its irrigation loads for about half of its sales.

Within its service territory is the Trailblazer Pipeline Compressor Station 601. Located just south of the Nebraska state line, the station and Highline have come together to create a unique and innovative way to generate electricity on the northeastern plains of Colorado. Owned by Tallgrass Energy, the facility compresses natural gas and pushes about 900 million cubic feet of that gas a day along its 436-mile path. Compressing that gas and raising the pressure of the gas in the pipeline takes energy and generates heat.

Originally that heat was exhausted into the sky. But Highline Electric had the idea to convert that waste heat into electricity. A partnership was established and today a heat exchanger captures that heat and, through a complicated process, turns a turbine to generate electricity. About 4.5 megawatts is generated annually. And because this electricity is generated without any fuel, it saves 27,600 tons of CO2 from being pumped into the air each year.