WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted Alamosa County $1,699,965 to study transmission lines in the Valley. The grant is due to the efforts of Alamosa County Commissioner Lori Laske and others.
Laske gave the Valley Courier an overview of the project and said, "I became involved when I first became a County Commissioner in 2021, when there was the fire in Boulder [December 2021], and all of the gas and electricity was turned off in the Valley. This was at night and in winter.
“I started to receive calls from residents who were concerned about the outage. They had family members who were on oxygen and other medical issues. People asked when the power would be on and why something in Boulder was impacting the San Luis Valley and Alamosa County."
Laske said that event initiated her interest in the issue of transmission lines and learned the lines come through "the same Poncha Pass corridor. We also had an outage in May related to a line down at Poncha Pass. That pass has been identified by emergency managers as a possible fire hazard.”
Laske said her interest in transmission lines increased when she was contacted by Erin Minks with Senator Michael Bennett's office and asked to attend a meeting to have the issue be placed on a docket to look at providing transmission in and out of the San Luis Valley. This is something that has been considered for a long time, she said.
Xcel Energy operates a 115-kilovolt line over Poncha Pass, and Tri-State Generation and the Western Area Power Authority operate a 230-kilovolt line over the pass. According to Laske, a new line, such as one south to New Mexico, would reduce the risk of relying on power through the one route over Poncha.
“We will study a bigger line, a 345-kilowatt line, that might allow us to export solar energy out of the Valley. As solar is only produced during the day, if we have solar energy storage, that power could stay here."
Laske added that she has attended many meetings with power experts and always asks why, despite increased solar production in the Valley, no rates have gone down in the region. To date, no one has answered that question.
The study will be an analysis and extensive community engagement around three potential transmission corridors to identify the optimal route to increase electric transmission capacity to the Upper Rio Grande Valley in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.
According to the DOE, "In a continued effort to expedite the build-out of a resilient and reliable electric grid, the U.S. Department of Energy announced 20 projects across 16 states selected to receive up to $371 million to accelerate the permitting of high-voltage, interstate transmission projects.
"These projects will also support community infrastructure projects along major new and upgraded transmissions lines, including upgrading public school buildings and emergency response facilities. Administered by DOE's Grid Deployment Office, today's Transmission Siting and Economic Development (TSED) grants will help advance at least 16 high-impact transmission lines across the country, supporting the deployment of reliable and affordable energy for consumers and creating good-paying jobs.
"Today, every pocket of the country is experiencing the grueling impact of extreme weather, and there's no doubt that we must expand our transmission grid to get more clean, resilient power to more people, in more places," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
The study is moving forward. Laske said, "We have a conditional proposal; before we applied for this application, we did an RFP [request for proposal], and that really made us competitive for this grant; there are only 20 grants. We have a contract with a company to do a study.
“The first component is stakeholder engagement and outreach. Community meetings with the railroad, CDOT, and forest service will be held. The second component will be an analysis, not a complete engineering study; it will look at what the best route is, mapping, and routes. After that we will receive their recommendations.”
The Colorado Electric Transmission Authority has applied to construct the line, although Laske said they are a last-resort option, and the line could be built by any entity.
The $1.7 million grant study will begin later this year and take 18 months to complete. After this study is finished an engineering study must be completed.
Laske thanked Craig Bearclaw with the Council of Governments and Sarah Stoeber with the San Luis Valley Development Resources Group and the Colorado Energy Office for their assistance.
