Regional Organizations

There are a number of regional organizations that are working together to build the electrical infrastructure required to better transmit generated renewable energy in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. The Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) works with the following organizations to help advance this initiative.

• Western Interstate Energy Board (WIEB)
  WIEB is an organization of 12 western states and three western Canadian provinces. Its purpose is to provide the instruments and framework for cooperative state efforts to "enhance the economy of the West and contribute to the well-being of the region's people." The WIEB seeks to achieve this through cooperative efforts among member states/provinces and with the federal government in the energy field. The WIEB serves as the energy arm of the Western Governors’ Association.
  
  
• Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation
  Much of the work of the WIEB is conducted through committees. Committee members are appointed by board representatives and often have expertise on a particular issue. The WIEB’s Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation consists of the public utility commissions, energy agencies and facility siting agencies in the western states and Canadian provinces in the western electricity grid, and has been working to improve the efficiency of the western electric power system. The State of Colorado is represented by Colorado Public Utilities Commissioner James Tarpey and Morey Wolfson from the Governor's Energy Office, who was designated by Director Tom Plant to serve in his stead.
  
  
• Rocky Mountain Area Transmission Study (RMATS)
  The Governors of Utah and Wyoming co-sponsored the RMATS as a regional transmission planning initiative to identify the most cost effective transmission systems given the location of potential new generation in the Rocky Mountain area. The initiatives focus on the important role new transmission will play in providing access to the region’s most economical energy resources while ensuring delivery of reliable and affordable supplies of electricity to the fast growing economies of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming and to other parts of the Western Interconnection.

  The goal of the RMATS is to identify the most critical electric transmission and generation project needs in the Rocky Mountain region, and, with broad stakeholder involvement, to provide a framework for regional collaboration to improve the Western Interconnection with technically, financially and environmentally viable projects and to help facilitate effective developmental consideration. Public-private collaboration sponsored by the RMATS is a necessary step in turning transmission planning into “towers and wires”.

• The Colorado Coordinated Planning Group (CCPG)
  The CCPG is a joint, high voltage transmission system planning forum for the purpose of assuring a high degree of reliability in the planning, development, and operation of the high voltage transmission system in the Rocky Mountain Region in accordance with the Joint Transmission Access Principles and the Electric Transmission Service Policy Statement, dated December 16, 1991. The CCPG provides the forum required to complete reliability assessments, develop joint business opportunities, and accomplish coordinated planning under the single-system planning concept in the Rocky Mountain Region of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. The CCPG formed the Colorado Long Range Transmission Planning Group (CLRTPG).
  
  
• Colorado Long Range Transmission Planning Group (CLRTPG)
  The CLRTPG provides a forum for electricity providers in the State of Colorado to jointly explore the potential a coordinated transmission network to meet Colorado’s growing power demand. The Senate Bill 07-91 Report acts as a guide in the plans for state transmission development in 2015 to 2018.
  

• The Western Governors Association (WGA)
  The WGA is an association of the governors from 19 states, and 3 U.S. pacific islands, and was formed to develop and communicate regional policy, serve as a leadership forum, build regional capacity, and form coalitions and partnerships to advance regional interests.

  In May of 2008, the WGA and the U.S. Department of Energy launched the Western Renewable Energy Zones (WREZ) project to discover and utilize the areas in the west with renewable energy capacity. The project hopes to address the remote locations of renewable energy projects and the cost of transmission.
  

• The Interwest Energy Alliance
  Interwest Energy Alliance is a trade association that brings the nation's renewable energy industry together with the West's advocacy community.The mix of industry and non-governmental advocacy groups helps facilitate a consensus-based approach to project development throughout the West. Together, the members support state-level public policies that harness the West's abundant –and inexhaustible– renewable energy and energy efficiency resources. The primary states of focus are Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.