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Future Expansion
Tri-State’s baseload power resources provide reliable, low-cost power that is available around the clock to meet the needs of Tri-State’s member cooperatives. The G&T mainly relies on baseload generation to meet the energy required by residential, commercial and industrial consumers.
To meet the rapidly growing energy needs of its member cooperatives, Tri-State is pursuing a unit at the existing Holcomb Station power plant in western Kansas. Tri-State could receive additional power from a second unit to be built at Holcomb Station by Sunflower Electric Power Corporation and Golden Spread Electric Cooperative.
The highly efficient, supercritical pulverized coal power plant is scheduled to be online in 2013. The facility will incorporate best available control technology to minimize air emissions and include mercury-specific emission controls.
Long-term planning
 Generation resources inherently have long lead times for development. To ensure that Tri-State is prepared to meet future member load growth, the association has begun laying the necessary groundwork to develop a new power plant called the Colorado Power Project at a site in southeast Colorado. Preliminary planning and preparatory work has commenced, including environmental studies and site acquisition.
In 2007, Tri-State will construct a meteorological tower and install monitoring equipment to collect environmental data and will begin a water change case to convert existing agricultural water rights to industrial use.
The Colorado Power Project site would be available for development to meet longer-term power needs. Member cooperative load growth will determine the development schedule, and the availability of emerging technologies could influence the project's design.
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