Costs Dive with Tailored Planning: Shared and Unique Content in Aviation Protection Plans Provide Economic Efficiency

From 2002 to 2003, the Colorado Rural Electric Association (CREA ) led the development of avian protection plans (APPs) with avian risk assessments (ARA s) for 21 cooperatives, two municipal utilities, and the Public Service Company of Colorado (now known as Xcel Energy). Making use of the best mapping and data collection tools of the day, these documents offered guidance on avian management and mitigation to improve avian safety and system reliability. These tailored APPs leveraged shared and utilityspecific content to meet the unique needs of each utility, while remaining affordable to small providers. The CREA project leveraged available efficiencies to deliver 24 utilityspecific APPs at a far lower cost than would have been possible had each APP been developed separately. Due to this large-scale, visionary effort, the vast majority of Colorado's power lines are covered by an APP. To our knowledge, no group of independent utilities had developed tailored APPs for more than a decade after the CREA project.