Clean air, low rates priority for local power plant

People drive past it every day on Interstate 25 south of Colorado Springs but may not realize it exists or understand its future potential.

Next to the Nixon Power Plant is the Front Range Power Plant, built in 2003 to run on natural gas instead of coal.

Front Range was primarily a supplemental power generator for its owner, Colorado Springs Utilities, when it opened during a period of high fuel costs.

Since then, however, prices have dropped significantly and the plant is more cost- effective to operate, said Heather Bresnahan, the plant manager.

“It makes us very competitive, and it’s something we’re constantly doing within the utility, to evaluate fuel prices and determine how we provide electricity for our consumers to make sure that we’re passing the best rates on to them,” she said.

The utility will depend more heavily on Front Range, Bresnahan said, as it begins to phase out the aging Drake Power Plant.

“Front Range has the capacity to generate 50 percent of our power needs,” she said. “That’s more than Drake and Nixon combined.”

Bresnahan said among Front Range’s advantages are greater efficiency and low emissions.

“The gas is piped in from a local supplier,” she said. “So there’s no coal to ship in and store. It’s a purified, closed system that uses air and water, captures heat exhaust and uses it to generate more electricity.”

Later this year, CSU plans to build a large solar array next to Front Range, to meet its goal of 20 percent clean energy production by 2020.

CSU says Bresnahan is among the few female power plant managers in the country. She was promoted three months ago.

“I am the first and the only female plant manager within Colorado Springs Utilities,” she said. “It’s an honor and it’s exciting to me because I get a chance to pave the future for other women.”

Front Range is one of around a dozen natural gas-fueled power plants in Colorado.