Resources and Planning
Platte River Power Authority employs an adaptive strategy to cost-effectively maintain reliability, manage risks, and ensure regulatory compliance. During 2016, Platte River delivered its latest Integrated Resource Plan, initiated collaborative efforts to help satisfy individual resource needs of the owner municipalities, and began exploring potential participation in an existing Regional Transmission Organization. Platte River continues to evaluate future plans with an eye toward resource diversification.
One of the most significant events of 2016 involved the decision to decommission Craig Unit 1 by the end of 2025. This decision was jointly made by the five owners of the Yampa Project based on market conditions and regulatory uncertainty. During 2016, Platte River also participated in discussions with several other regional utilities to consider forming an organized wholesale power market, which could materialize in the next few years. Belonging to an organized market will also bring future operational and planning challenges for Platte River’s system, and these changes are being contemplated in current modeling efforts.
Shown below is the Action Plan from the 2016 IRP, which helps shape near-term resource decisions for Platte River.
Continue to diversify the portfolio to manage risk and limit CO2 emissions
- Exit ownership of Platte River’s share of Craig Unit 1
- Integrate 30 MW of new solar generation into the portfolio
- Evaluate the acquisition of additional renewables generation
Prepare for business structures, products, and programs preferred by our owner municipalities
- Work with owner municipalities to develop customized future supply portfolios
- Continue expansion of cost-effective energy efficiency programs
- Continue development and implementation of a demand response pilot
- Participate with owner municipalities in the evaluation of distributed technologies such as community solar and combined heat-and-power applications
Continue to implement ways to maintain the high reliability of Platte River’s power system
- Look to secure affordable ways of balancing expected long-term growth in renewables generation using services from the regional balancing authority or future organized markets
- Manage unit outage risk through mutual support agreements, use of peaking resources, or other market opportunities for capacity
- Actively monitor regional markets to understand options for cost-effective reliability products
- Provide direction to influence the development of regional energy and ancillary services markets
