Electricity from far, but not near

The recent announcement of Excel Energy buying out Invenergy was met with general apathy by the media. But it does have local impacts, especially since Invenergy was coming before the county commissioners on Nov. 26th for final approval of a power plant south of Fountain.

 Invenergy is a wind energy company with windmills in several states working on the premise that wind will be blowing some where all the time. They wholesale to other providers and that power eventually finds its way via local providers like Fountain Utilities and Mountain View Electric into our homes. However, people having the expectations they do, are not pleased when the lights do not come on every time they flip the switch, so even with multiple windmill sites there is a need for a fuel fired plant to pick up the slack and take the normal peaks off of the day. The fuel of choice for these peak power generating plants is natural gas. It is a clean burning fuel, fires up quickly and powers down quickly to adjust to the demands on the system.

 With the Colorado Legislature mandating, and the Governor making renewable energy one of the hallmarks of his administration, Colorado has seen an increase in all types of alternate energy production. Invenergy, being a smaller more easily adaptable company worth billions, was a logical target for a larger Excel Energy type of company worth hundreds of billions as it responded to the new mandates. A small article in a Denver paper praises Excel for the acquisition of Invenergy, and the use of the turbines that were to be installed in El Paso County that will now be used to replace coal fired turbines at the Fort Saint Vrain power generating facility north of Denver.

These plants, while necessary, don’t come without impacts, including additional power lines and other visual impacts, but from what I had heard through the grapevine and the fact it was back on the commissioner’s schedule it seems Invenergy had worked through the issues regarding their plant.
As a member of an energy committee for the South East Colorado Region I have found energy is much like water, if you can’t get it where you need it all kind of things grind to a halt, and current production and transmitting capacity is nearly at its limit. With a large natural gas line intersecting power transmission lines in a relatively open area we may see another proposal for a power plant in the future, but just not everybody has 400 million lying around to invest in a power plant.

Meanwhile, what was called the Squirrel Creek Energy Center has been pulled from the Nov. 26th agenda.

CONTACT THE WRITER • HISEY4CD4@MSN.COM

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