Tri-State’s Mac McLennan, Lee Boughey and Barbara Walz were honored recently as recipients of EPRI‘s Technology Transfer Award for the association’s leadership in education and information exchange of technology and research results related to the development of its Greenhouse Gas Management Roadmap.
As part of its ongoing comprehensive risk identification and analysis strategy, in 2009, Tri-State initiated an enterprise-wide effort to assess its ability to manage the risks associated with potential greenhouse gas emissions constraints. The result of these efforts was the Greenhouse Gas Management Roadmap that serves as an internal planning tool and was communicated to policymakers, the association’s member cooperatives and numerous other stakeholders. The award recognizes Tri-State for the successful collaborations with EPRI.
The effort involved almost every organization within Tri-State, according to Lee Boughey, senior manager, communications and public affairs. “We developed a comprehensive Roadmap that identified our technology strategies and compiled all the different initiatives, assessments and studies into one plan,” Boughey said. Tri-State drew heavily on information and tools developed by EPRI to help shape its Roadmap. It used EPRI’s PRISM analysis, which assesses how the electricity sector can reduce greenhouse gases, as well as a site-specific greenhouse gas emissions inventory that EPRI completed in 2007. Tri-State also based the Roadmap on many EPRI projects with which it is involved, including carbon capture and sequestration and renewables technologies.
One example of Tri-State’s work with EPRI is the association’s hosting of a major study on integrating concentrated solar power technology with an existing coal plant.
EPRI’s Tom Wilson, who has worked closely with Tri-State on many climate change projects, notes, “I think it’s a wonderful example of how a company took the initiative to use EPRI information. We have so much information here that it’s sometimes overwhelming. We’re really impressed with how they were able to pull this together and communicate their strategy.” Tri-State believes its Roadmap is a living document that will evolve over time, and that the success of the Roadmap’s objectives is strongly tied to EPRI.
“Through the EPRI research program, we can participate and have access to cutting-edge information on energy technology and greenhouse gas management,” said Barbara Walz, vice president of environmental. “While we created the roadmap internally, the EPRI portfolio is an enabler for us to be able to do much of the work. EPRI is an invaluable partner in helping us achieve our mission.”
With technical assistance and support from Tri-State member co-op Mountain Parks Electric, a group of high school students and their teachers dedicated a 3-kilowatt photovoltaic tracking solar array on March 26 at Middle Park High School in Granby, Colo.
