The electricity wholesaler will purchase the plant by acquiring 100% of the equity interests in the Thermo Cogeneration Partnership (TCP) from affiliates of US-based private investment firm Starwood Energy Group.
Tri-State executive vice president and general manager Ken Anderson said this acquisition diversifies Tri-State’s resource fleet and provides important load-following capabilities in a high-growth part of its four-state system.
Tri-State has been buying 150MW of power from the Fort Lupton facility since July 2009 under a ten-year tolling agreement with TCP.
TCP is also under contract to provide 122MW of capacity to a third party, which will continue to be fulfilled through 2019.
Tri-State supplies power to 44 electric cooperatives serving 1.5 million consumers throughout a 200,000 square-mile service territory across the US states of Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.
