U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright on Friday issued an emergency order to keep a Colorado coal plant operational.
The order directs Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association (Tri-State), Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, PacifiCorp, and Public Service Company of Colorado (a subsidiary of Xcel Energy), to take all measures necessary to ensure that Craig Unit 1 is available to operate at the direction of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP).
Unit 1 of the coal plant was originally scheduled to shut down at the end of 2025, but in December 2025 and again in March 2026, Secretary Wright issued emergency orders directing Tri-State and the co-owners to ensure that Unit 1 at the Craig Station remains available to operate.
“Taking reliable generation off the grid compromises energy reliability and needlessly raises energy costs for Americans,” Secretary Wright said in a news release.
Coal plants across the country are being saved from premature retirement and reversing plans to shut down, Wright said, adding that in 2025, more than 17 gigawatts of coal-power electricity generation remained online.
According to DOE’s Resource Adequacy Report, blackouts were on track to potentially increase 100 times by 2030 if the U.S. continued to take reliable power offline.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment warns that the WECC-Rocky Mountain assessment area faces challenges from an aging thermal resource fleet, which can lead to unplanned outages, exacerbated by supply chain issues, and vendor availability.
The order is in effect until September 26.
