Power at any price: crisis fears have abated, but energy issues remain.

• Author: Peterson, Eric

The 2001 California energy crisis prompted Gov. Bill Owens to appoint a panel to ascertain whether Colorado was headed down the same road. The verdict: Without accelerating the construction of new electrical generation capacity, we might well be.

Three years later, those generation worries have dissipated as the California situation now is considered overblown due in part to the machinations of Enron.

For its part, Xcel Energy, which serves 1.3 million customers in Colorado, has put together deals to add a dozen new power generation sources for the state--about 2,000 megawatts in all--since 2001. Municipal providers also reacted swiftly, as did rural co-ops, while early-millennium projections for needed capacity largely over-shot the state's recession-tempered population growth.

"We feel we've done a really good job putting generation in place to meet demand," said Xcel spokesperson Mark Stutz. "Generation is not an issue. However we get there, we will add the necessary generation to keep up with the growing demand."

In early 2004, with fresher headlines (i.e. "Blackout Shrouds NYC") in the national rear-view mirror, it follows that a California-style generation deficit is no longer Colorado's prime energy issue. The questionable long-term reliability of the state's transmission infrastructure now holds that distinction.

"The big problem with transmission is NIMBY," said Stutz. "It's a not-in-my-back-yard situation. Building a transmission line is probably the single most difficult thing in the power industry right now." There is no one overarching organization for siting and permitting, and disparate jurisdictions and landowners regularly quash proposed projects. More often than not, such disagreements are settled in court.

While preservation of views is the landowner's top concern, "Undergrounding lines is not a solution," Stutz added, as the construction tab can jump from about $500,000 per mile on the surface up to $5 million per mile underground.

"Throughout Colorado, most of the high-voltage transmission lines are tapped out--they are at capacity," echoed Jim Van Someren, spokesman for Westminster-based Tri-State G&T, which wholesales electricity to 44 rural co-ops in the area. As an example, Van Someren cited a 50-year-old transmission line between Telluride and Nucla in need of an upgrade. "That project has been on the drawing board for five or six years now. One obstacle after another has been thrown at us."

"During particularly...