Iberdrola Renewables Announces Wind Power Agreement with Tri-State Generation

Iberdrola Renewables today announced a 25-year contract to supply Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. (Tri-State) – a wholesale electric power supplier owned by 44 electric cooperatives and public power districts across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming – with renewable energy from the planned Twin Buttes II Wind Project.

 Tri-State will purchase the entire output of the 76-megawatt (MW) wind farm, when the project is expected to be completed in 2017.

The Twin Buttes II project will consist of 38 wind turbines located on 11,000 acres of land 23 miles south of Lamar, Colorado, near Iberdrola Renewables’ existing Twin Buttes Wind Project. The new project will produce enough energy to power the approximate equivalent of 30,000 average Colorado households. It is expected to deliver approximately $270,000 in local tax benefits and $250,000 in landowner lease payments annually.

“In 2014, approximately 24 percent of the energy Tri-State and its member systems delivered to cooperative members was generated from renewable resources, making us one of the leading utilities in the country for using renewable power,” noted Brad Nebergall, Tri-State’s senior vice president of energy management. “The Twin Buttes II Wind Project further reinforces our commitment to a diverse generation fleet built on cost-effective resources. We’d like to thank our partners at Iberdrola Renewables and our member system Southeast Colorado Power Association, who will host this outstanding project in their service territory.”

“Southeast Colorado Power welcomes this expansion as positive economic development and power source diversification that will benefit member-owners within our service territory,” added Jack Johnston, the rural electric cooperative’s chief executive officer.

“We’re excited to welcome this investment in our community,” said Ron Cook, the Chairman of the Prowers County Commission. “Renewable energy has already proven to be a good neighbor, by providing substantial local economic benefits to the individual leaseholders and the larger community as a whole. It diversifies and strengthens the area’s agricultural economic base.”

“Wind is the most drought-resistant crop we have, and it’s delivered valuable economic stability to a number of family farmers and ranchers in the area,” said Val Emick, a landowner at Twin Buttes II and the operating Colorado Green wind farm. “Working with an experienced developer and operator like Iberdrola Renewables gives us a lot of confidence that Twin Buttes II will expand a successful partnership and help a lot of working families around here.”

“We are happy to support Tri-State’s renewable energy goals with affordable wind energy from our new project,” said Barrett Stambler, vice president of Iberdrola Renewables. “With experience developing, constructing, and managing wind and solar projects in Colorado, we look forward to reliably providing clean power and supporting a new partnership with them.”

Based in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is a not-for-profit wholesale power supplier to 44 electric cooperatives and public power districts serving approximately 1.5 million consumers throughout a 200,000 square-mile service territory across Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming. In 2015, Tri-State was recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy as Wind Cooperative of the Year.