SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – There may be an end in sight to the Telluride region’s vulnerability to extended power outages.

The San Miguel County Commissioners announced Wednesday that a tentative settlement has been reached in a 10-year dispute over whether and how to upgrade an aging 69kV powerline that transmits power from the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s Nucla power station and Telluride.

According to the broad terms of the agreement, the line will be upgraded to a 115kV line, and it will be buried underground where it traverses the scenic mesas west of Telluride, with part of the cost of the undergrounding to be paid for by customers of the San Miguel Power Assn., through a surcharge on their power bills.

The upgrade was proposed over 10 years ago by Tri-State and SMPA as a way of providing redundant power to the Telluride region, whose primary source of power is via a 115kV line from Hesperus over Coal Bank, Molas and Ophir passes. That line is highly vulnerable to avalanches and other geo-hazards. When it goes down, the existing backup line from Nucla cannot meet the region’s demand, forcing rolling blackouts. Worse, if a slide were to take out the Hesperus line in the middle of the winter, it might not be able to be repaired until spring. The region experienced just such an emergency in 2004, although repairs were possible in that instance within a week.

Tri-State and SMPA sought the upgrade to the Nucla line not only to address the vulnerability of the Hesperus line but also because the existing Nucla line is at the end of its useful life, is subject to frequent failures and high maintenance costs, and must be replaced in any case. In a sharply contested decision in March 2002, commissioners Goodtimes and Elaine Fischer voted to approve the proposed upgrade, but stipulated it must be built underground in scenic areas, at Tri-State’s expense. Vern Ebert, who sat on the BOCC dissented in that decision. Then Tri-State appealed to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, neighbors whose land was at issue intervened, and the entire question of who should pay to underground the transmission line has been tied up in litigation since.

The agreement settling the matter, which according to Commissioner Art Goodtimes has a lot left to be worked out, would require each party involved pay a share of the cost of undergrounding the line approximately 9.75 miles across on Specie and Wilson mesas. Tri-State, the wholesale power provider to SMPA, has estimated that underground construction of the 115kV line will be approximately $16.4 million more than an overhead line, based on a 2007 engineering study.

Tri-State has agreed to pay $7.5 million of the underground construction costs with the Coalition of Concerned San Miguel County Homeowners agreeing to contribute $1.2 million. The final $7.7 million will be picked up by SMPA’s power-purchasing consumers located in the R-1 School District (except Hastings Mesa) in the form of a monthly percentage surcharge that could range from $2 to $3 per month on a $50 bill, and $4 to $6 per month on a $100 energy bill. All of the overhead transmission lines will be built at Tri-State’s expense.

“We had a great difference of opinion on who should pay for the cost of the underground,” Goodtimes said at Wednesday’s commissioners’ meeting. “If we continued on that path, we all realized the unintended consequence of that it would be an estimated 15 to 20 years before a powerline upgrade becomes effective. We have already seen the Ophir line go down. It is a risk way too huge to envision for 15 to 20 years.”

If the proposed settlement can be finalized, the powerline upgrade will be completed sometime in the next four to five years, Goodtimes said.

Even though the county is moving forward with the cost-sharing agreement to mitigate Telluride’s power-loss risk, the commissioners stand by their original decision to require the transmission line to be buried in scenic areas. That decision was subsequently overturned by the PUC, a ruling that did not end the conflict because affected property owners filed suit.

“We have, San Miguel County has, upheld our undergrounding specifications,” Goodtimes said.

“We thought Tri-State should pay for the undergrounding, that is why we sued,” said Fischer on Wednesday. “They ought to be accountable for undergrounding. We still believe that, but we have reached a real political moment with this decision.”

Goodtimes is currently researching ways to lower SMPA’s interest rate for covering the cost of the transmission line upgrade. Goodtimes hopes to get concentrated solar hooked into the new line at some point, which in turn could lower interest rates with the help of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s green energy initiatives.

“I am hoping to talk about the possibility of concentrated solar out of the west end on this powerline,” Goodtimes said. “If we were to do that, it could be one way to bring a lower interest rate. Alternative energy is something that Tri-State is going to have to do. It is not to say we can accomplish this, but it is one idea.”

As of now, before the cost-sharing agreement can be finalized, the SMPA Board of Directors must approve the imposition of the surcharge and local governments must formally authorize SMPA to do so. The Telluride Town Council will discuss the settlement on Feb. 19; the Mountain Village Town Council has the discussion scheduled for Feb. 21.

The SMPA Board of Directors will discuss the settlement at its Feb. 20 meeting in Nucla.SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – There may be an end in sight to the Telluride region’s vulnerability to extended power outages.

The San Miguel County Commissioners announced Wednesday that a tentative settlement has been reached in a 10-year dispute over whether and how to upgrade an aging 69kV powerline that transmits power from the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s Nucla power station and Telluride.

According to the broad terms of the agreement, the line will be upgraded to a 115kV line, and it will be buried underground where it traverses the scenic mesas west of Telluride, with part of the cost of the undergrounding to be paid for by customers of the San Miguel Power Assn., through a surcharge on their power bills.

The upgrade was proposed over 10 years ago by Tri-State and SMPA as a way of providing redundant power to the Telluride region, whose primary source of power is via a 115kV line from Hesperus over Coal Bank, Molas and Ophir passes. That line is highly vulnerable to avalanches and other geo-hazards. When it goes down, the existing backup line from Nucla cannot meet the region’s demand, forcing rolling blackouts. Worse, if a slide were to take out the Hesperus line in the middle of the winter, it might not be able to be repaired until spring. The region experienced just such an emergency in 2004, although repairs were possible in that instance within a week.

Tri-State and SMPA sought the upgrade to the Nucla line not only to address the vulnerability of the Hesperus line but also because the existing Nucla line is at the end of its useful life, is subject to frequent failures and high maintenance costs, and must be replaced in any case. San Miguel County approved the proposed upgrade, but stipulated it must be built underground in scenic areas, at Tri-State’s expense. Tri-State appealed to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, neighbors whose land was at issue intervened, and the entire question of who should pay to underground the transmission line has been tied up in litigation since.

The agreement settling the matter, which according to Commissioner Art Goodtimes has a lot left to be worked out, would require each party involved pay a share of the cost of undergrounding the line approximately 9.75 miles across on Specie and Wilson mesas. Tri-State, the wholesale power provider to SMPA, has estimated that underground construction of the 115kV line will be approximately $16.4 million more than an overhead line, based on a 2007 engineering study.

Tri-State has agreed to pay $7.5 million of the underground construction costs with the Coalition of Concerned San Miguel County Homeowners agreeing to contribute $1.2 million. The final $7.7 million will be picked up by SMPA’s power-purchasing consumers located in the R-1 School District (except Hastings Mesa) in the form of a monthly percentage surcharge that could range from $2 to $3 per month on a $50 bill, and $4 to $6 per month on a $100 energy bill. All of the overhead transmission lines will be built at Tri-State’s expense.

“We had a great difference of opinion on who should pay for the cost of the underground,” Goodtimes said at Wednesday’s commissioners’ meeting. “If we continued on that path, we all realized the unintended consequence of that it would be an estimated 15 to 20 years before a powerline upgrade becomes effective. We have already seen the Ophir line go down. It is a risk way too huge to envision for 15 to 20 years.”

If the proposed settlement can be finalized, the powerline upgrade will be completed sometime in the next four to five years, Goodtimes said.

Even though the county is moving forward with the cost-sharing agreement to mitigate Telluride’s power-loss risk, the commissioners stand by their original decision to require the transmission line to be buried in scenic areas. That decision was subsequently overturned by the PUC, a ruling that did not end the conflict because affected property owners filed suit.

“We have, San Miguel County has, upheld our undergrounding specifications,” Goodtimes said.

“We thought Tri-State should pay for the undergrounding, that is why we sued,” said Commissioner Elaine Fischer. “They ought to be accountable for undergrounding. We still believe that, but we have reached a real political moment with this decision.”

Goodtimes is currently researching ways to lower SMPA’s interest rate for covering the cost of the transmission line upgrade. Goodtimes hopes to get concentrated solar hooked into the new line at some point, which in turn could lower interest rates with the help of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s green energy initiatives.

“I am hoping to talk about the possibility of concentrated solar out of the west end on this powerline,” Goodtimes said. “If we were to do that, it could be one way to bring a lower interest rate. Alternative energy is something that Tri-State is going to have to do. It is not to say we can accomplish this, but it is one idea.”

As of now, before the cost-sharing agreement can be finalized, the SMPA Board of Directors must approve the imposition of the surcharge and local governments must formally authorize SMPA to do so. The Telluride Town Council will discuss the settlement on Feb. 19; the Mountain Village Town Council has the discussion scheduled for Feb. 21.

The SMPA Board of Directors will discuss the settlement at its Feb. 20 meeting in Nucla.