Colorado Rural Electric Group Says Wind Power Is Unreliable

Colorado Rural Electric Group Says Wind Power Is Unreliable, Dangerous

By Eric Hübler, The Denver Post --Mar.26

-Colorado's largest electrical co-op says wind-generated power is unreliable, costly and dangerous.

Intermountain Rural Electric Association included a letter with its March invoices urging customers to oppose legislation that would require some utilities to ensure about 10 percent of their electricity supply is from renewable sources.

House Bill 1273 has advanced further than a similar bill last year. But it faces a tough Senate debate today, because Sen. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, amended the bill to lift a cap on hydroelectric power generation, a move designed to be unpalatable to environmentalists.

Co-op spokesman Bill Schroeder said Intermountain, which serves 119,000 customers in 10 counties east and south of metro Denver, has held its rates steady since 1982 by opposing mandates.

The proposed bill would not apply directly to Intermountain, but it could boost prices because the co-op buys energy from Xcel Energy.

"We have a history of wrestling with issues that cause our customers to pay more than they should have to pay," Schroeder said.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Association supports the bill. Xcel, the state's largest utility, supported it at first but is unsure about the amended version, spokesman Steve Roalstad said.

Most utility companies are more moderate than Sedalia-based Intermountain, said Greg Schnacke, executive vice president of the oil and gas association. "Our industry recognizes that fuel mix is a reality."

Schnacke's group took no position on last year's bill. This year they're supporting it because it foresees natural gas generators working together with those fueled by wind or the sun to create a constant flow of power.

Wind's top drawback is that it's not "dispatchable," Schnacke said. A gas turbine can speed up to meet sudden demand; a wind turbine sits idle if the air is still.

But wind and gas generators can be electronically linked so that the gas turbines fire up when the wind dies down and taper off when the wind is strong, Schnacke said. "Natural gas actually partners up on the technological side with alternative energy generation."

Intermountain opposes wind-generated power, though. Its flier says that wind-generated power is triple the cost of that generated by coal, and that it kills birds and hurts people.

The flier also cites health claims made in January in the British newspaper Sunday Telegraph, including a doctor's report that people living near wind turbines suffer from nausea, headaches and depression.

The pro-wind Interwest Energy Alliance said Intermountain's assertions are based on outdated or incomplete information.

The alliance said the cost of wind power has dropped. And although an early wind farm did kill birds, developers now study migration patterns before building.

Schnacke said he hopes HB 1273 passes because a regulated phase-in of hybrid generation beats a ballot proposal, which may be environmentalists' next step.

The bill's chief obstacle now is Lamborn's hydropower amendment.

Hydropower is renewable but disrupts fish migrations because it requires rivers to be dammed.

Asked why he proposed the amendment, Lamborn first said he likes hydropower, but then he conceded it was meant to kill the bill because he thinks mandated technologies can't be competitive.

"I really believe that by turning down this bill we are helping the technologies stand on their own two feet," he said.

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