By the late 1970s, Tri-State had embarked on two major power project investments that to this day comprise more than half of the association’s owned baseload capacity. Craig Station, which at that time was operated by Colorado-Ute, completed its third unit in 1984 and Laramie River Station, operated by Basin Electric, completed a similar three-unit coal-based facility in 1982.

By the late 1970s construction of what would become Tri-State's flagship generating station was in full swing. Today, about 300 employees work at Craig Station.

The 1980s brought some of the G&T’s greatest challenges, not the least of which was an economic downturn that reduced member growth and demand dramatically,  just when its new baseload units were coming on line.

To generate revenue for the power that was temporarily not required by its members, the G&T launched a progressive marketing strategy to sell the new generation from Craig and LRS by seeking out other utilities, aligning itself with regional power pools and tapping into outside energy markets. That strategy paid off and by 1984 Tri-State reported positive margins and dramatically improved its financial picture.

The association also faced a landmark legal challenge during the mid-1980s, with Pacific Power & Light’s attempt to buy out former Tri-State member Shoshone River Power (Cody, Wyo.). The dispute brought into question the validity of the all-requirements contracts that Tri-State holds with its member systems.

Many industry leaders and proponents of consumer-owned power were concerned that the future of electric co-ops might hang in the balance if the sellout by the co-op was allowed to take place. It took nearly four years, but a settlement favorable to Tri-State was reached in 1989.

Colorado-Ute acquisition boosts workforce

By far the most significant event to occur in the 1990s was Tri-State’s 50 percent acquisition of Colorado-Ute Electric Association’s assets and the addition of 10 former Colorado-Ute co-ops to the Tri-State membership roster.

The former Colorado-Ute Electric Association's headquarters building in Montrose, Colo.

On April 15, 1992, Tri-State split the assets of the financially troubled G&T with investor-owned utilities Public Service Co. of Colorado and PacifiCorp, which absorbed the remaining half of Colorado-Ute. That action quadrupled Tri-State’s employee base from 215 to 875.

The transaction also made Tri-State the operating agent for Craig Station and the owner of Nucla Station. Additionally, Tri-State also acquired Colorado-Ute’s Montrose, Colo., facilities, an additional one-third interest in Trapper Mine, half of Colorado-Ute’s transmission and substation facilities, as well as another 408 megawatts of capacity by assuming the Craig Unit 3 lease.

The acquisition and assimilation of Colorado-Ute was essentially a five-year process that culminated with the March 1997 move of headquarters-based employees to Tri-State’s present day corporate office facilities in Westminster, Colo.

Tri-State expands to N.M.

By the end of the 1990s, continued rapid growth had reduced Tri-State’s once bountiful surplus generating capacity to near wafer-thin margins and the association launched a fast-track construction plan to add 280 megawatts of combustion turbines in Colorado.

The association greeted the new millennium by merging with the former Plains Electric G&T of Albuquerque, N.M.  On June 30, 2000, Tri-State took ownership of the 245-megawatt coal-based Escalante Station near Prewitt, N.M., the former G&T’s transmission network and added 12 New Mexico electric co-ops to its membership.

Along with that merger, Tri-State brought on board about 150 former Plains employees and constructed a new southern maintenance center at Rio Rancho, N.M., and added another 140-megawatt natural gas peaking plant in southern New Mexico.

Tri-State took over operations at Escalante Station following the Plains merger in 2000.

Tri-State’s continued growing pains, along with the expansion into New Mexico, meant that it was time to secure more new baseload generation. By 2006, construction was completed on a 418-megawatt third unit at Springerville Generating Station in eastern Arizona.

Although Tri-State had long been active in participating in and promoting renewable projects and had always relied upon federal hydropower to supply a substantial portion of its member requirements, the G&T has stepped up its green power initiatives in recent years.

On the member side, that has involved the creation of board incentive policies that make it easier for members to develop local renewable projects for their consumers and on the Tri-State side, staff began to seek out third parties to develop commercial renewable generating facilities in its service territory.

By the end of 2010, Tri-State was receiving the contracted output of the 51-megawatt Kit Carson Windpower Project in eastern Colorado and the 30-megawatt Cimarron Solar Project in northeastern New Mexico. In addition, Tri-State’s members have added or have plans for local renewable projects that will produce a combined 41 megawatts.

Last year, of course, was another milestone for acquisitions with the purchase of the J.M. Shafer Generating Station near Fort Lupton, Colo., and the purchase of the Colowyo Mine (near Meeker, Colo.) by Tri-State subsidiary Western Fuels-Colorado.

With six decades under its belt, Tri-State stands tall among the nation’s G&Ts and by all indications will remain that way for at least another 60 years.

Tri-State dedicated its first transmission line in 1966.

But, that’s not surprising when you consider that the mindset and the vision of the people who banded together to form the association back in the early 1950s has never wavered in the face of a lot of daunting challenges over the years. Despite all the growth and new assets that the association has accumulated since then, it still comes down to the Tri-State people, who have carried forward that same founding vision and commitment to the membership that continues to make this a unique and successful organization.

Humble beginnings

Tri-State was formed in 1952 as an administrator of electric co-op contracts with no real assets to step in for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), which had recently announced that it would no longer be able to meet all of the co-ops’ power requirements as it had in the past.  In light of the decree, Tri-State was formed by 26 electric co-ops and public power districts in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming to secure generation beyond what the federal government was willing to provide.  However, Tri-State would not take on that role of power generator for nearly another quarter of a century.

Tri-State occupied this old United Bank of Northglenn building during the early 1970s.

In 1957, a “master contract” was signed between the Bureau and Tri-State setting forth an agreement under which the USBR would supply power to member systems’ delivery points and Tri-State would serve as the administrator of those contracts. With that agreement in place, Tri-State opened its first office in Loveland, Colo., and hired its first general manager, Dick Tremmel.

In 1964, Tri-State formed a key partnership with another fledgling power supplier – Basin Electric Power Cooperative – which would later play a significant role in its history. In 1966, Tri-State built its first transmission line, the 230-kV, Stegall to Sidney, Neb., line.

Throughout the ’60s, the G&T continued to grow and add more employees and moved its main offices from Loveland to Denver.

The history of Tri-State would later become intertwined with the now defunct Colorado-Ute Electric Association, which was based in Montrose, Colo., and originally formed in 1941. The Montrose G&T built its first power plant – the 36-megawatt Nucla Station – in 1959 and added the 165-megawatt Hayden Station in 1965. By the mid-’60s, Colorado-Ute was providing 225 megawatts of capacity to its 10 member electric cooperatives on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Record growth

Tri-State constructed and dedicated its first headquarters building in Thornton, Colo., in 1976.

The 1970s marked a time of growth in Tri-State’s service territory and the G&T finally added its first generation – two combustion turbine power plants in eastern Colorado. In 1976 Tri-State solved the problem of moving power between the eastern and western power grids to serve its loads in Nebraska by constructing the David A. Hamil DC Tie in Stegall. By the early ’70s, Tri-State also moved its growing workforce from Denver to Northglenn, Colo.

By the late 1970s, Tri-State would invest in its first baseload generation as work began on the Yampa Project (Craig Station) in northwestern Colorado and the Missouri Basin Power Project (Laramie River Station) in southeastern Wyoming. The G&T also moved employees into a brand new headquarters building in Thornton, Colo., in 1976.

Read part 2 in tomorrow’s Powering the West.

]]> http://www.poweringthewest.org/2012/05/17/tri-state-marks-60-years-of-service-this-week-part-1/feed/ 0 http://www.poweringthewest.org/2012/05/16/board-approves-nebraska-line-upgrade/ http://www.poweringthewest.org/2012/05/16/board-approves-nebraska-line-upgrade/#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 15:00:30 +0000 TriStateGT http://www.poweringthewest.org/?p=1556

Late this year, Tri-State will begin rebuilding the 15-mile, Ogallala-Roscoe-Elsie Tap line in western Nebraska.

At Tri-State’s monthly board meeting held last week in Westminster, directors authorized the association’s staff to execute contracts to upgrade the 15-mile, 115-kilovolt Ogallala-Roscoe-Elsie Tap transmission line in Keith County, Neb., to accommodate load growth and future electrical needs of the region served by Tri-State member Midwest Electric (Grant, Neb.).

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin before year-end and take approximately four months to complete. The scope of the work will be to remove the original line, which was constructed in the late 1960s, and rebuild it with new structures and a larger conductor.

The new conductor will have a higher thermal rating to provide increased electrical capacity and system reliability that is particularly vital during the summertime irrigation season. The existing 115-kV voltage of the line will remain the same.

The upgraded line will also be equipped with a new overhead optical ground wire that will provide operational communications between the substations on each end of the line.

Rick Carson, senior engineer at Craig Station, gives an infrared camera demonstration to 8th graders from Craig Middle School.

Craig Station hosted 70 boys from Craig Middle School last week in conjunction with the school’s annual career day. Tom Gilchrist, chemistry manager, and Rick Carson, senior engineer, helped coordinate the day’s events with assistance from Craig Station employees Bob Baca, Bryan Gale, Barry Barnes, Rick Johnson, Sue Sexton, Dana Gregory, Marv Weible and Tim Osborn.

While girls from the school spent the day with local businesswomen, the 8th grade boys and seven of their teachers took in informative presentations at the plant, including “Do You Want to Work at a Power Plant?” as well as demonstrations and a tour of both Craig Station and Trapper Mine. “The boys were very excited about it,” said Gilchrist. “It was good day.”

“Overall I think the students really enjoyed the trip out to the plant and mine,” said Julia Elliott, school counselor at Craig Middle School. “The tour guides were awesome.” Elliott noted that touring Trapper Mine helped the students make the connection of the plant’s fuel source and that the entire experience was very interesting for them. “It definitely opened some eyes – they were still talking about it the next day,” she said.

Tri-State provided 30 large pizzas for the boys’ lunch – all of which were reportedly devoured within 15 minutes.

• Read more and watch a video on the project

Conductor is pulled through overhead line structures as work continues for the third and final year of construction on the Nucla-Sunshine project.

Construction of the Nucla-Sunshine 115-kilovolt, 51-mile transmission line began in the spring of 2010. It is being built around some steep forested mountains, across canyons, high alpine meadows and rugged high altitude terrain that is only accessible to construction crews and equipment between April and October, when mountain snows subside.

In addition to the construction challenges brought by the weather and topography, another unique aspect of this project is that a total of 10 miles of the line will be buried underground on Wilson and Specie mesas to satisfy local landowner concerns.

The new line replaces a more than 60-year-old, 69-kV line owned by Tri-State member San Miguel Power Association (Nucla, Colo.). This line was no longer adequate to serve the electrical requirements of Telluride in the event that its primary 115-kV line failed due to avalanche or other extreme weather events.

• View photos of line construction

“Right now, we have about 70 people working on the project,” said Pat Dille, transmission project manager for Tri-State. The main contractors on the project are General Cable, whose construction crews will soon be laying the underground cable in the excavated 10-mile trench that was completed last year, and Great Southwestern Co., the primary contractor for overhead line construction.  This spring, overhead line construction is in full swing and crews are progressing on the segment between Norwood Substation and Beaver Mesa, according to Dille.

A riser structure is constructed on West Specie Mesa, where the underground cable returns to overhead line.

In addition to the overhead line and underground cable, the project also involves modifications or new construction at a total of four substations along the 51-mile right-of-way.

“Modifications to the Norwood Substation are underway,” Dille said. “Construction is also progressing on the new Wilson Mesa Substation, along with ongoing modifications at Sunshine Substation. This fall, we will complete modifications at the Nucla Substation, which will be among the last phases of our construction on the line,” he added.

Dille said they are planning to begin energizing the Nucla-Sunshine line in October 2012.

More than 200 Thoreau Middle School students attended career day, made possible in part by Tri-State.

Thoreau Middle School, located in northwest New Mexico, held its inaugural career day last week and three of Tri-State’s Escalante Station employees were on hand for the event. More than 200 sixth, seventh and eighth graders visited Tri-State’s table during the day-long event and learned about the diversity of jobs that the energy industry and Tri-State in particular has to offer.

“It was a worthwhile endeavor because many of the students grew up near the plant and were interested in learning about Escalante Station,” said Sherry Garcia, human resource specialist at the plant. “It’s great to have relationships with the local schools – we give tours to students ages 12 and up and many teachers take advantage of that,” she said.

Thoreau Middle School guidance counselor Virgil Brown initially contacted Escalante Station, which is roughly 12 miles from the school, about participating in career day as a means of helping the middle school staff communicate to students the important connection between school and their future career prospects. “It means a lot to our students and teachers to have professionals from Tri-State come to our school and share information about the world of work, technology and post-high school education,” Brown said.

Many of the students grew up near Escalante Station and were interested in learning about it.

Donna Kittle, training coordinator, and Jesse Hite, mechanic welder, talked to the students about the different types of job duties that employees perform at Escalante. Extension agents from New Mexico State University, local water and gas utilities and firefighters also participated.

“The counseling department received many positive comments about each of the Tri-State staff from teachers and students,” said Brown. He noted that the information provided by Tri-State will be used in the classroom and that the school plans to pursue a future visit to the plant.

Wayne Child (center) participated in the ceremonial groundbreaking with other directors of the High West Energy board.

Colleagues, friends and family of long-time High West Energy (Pine Bluffs, Wyo.) and Tri-State director Wayne Child gathered May 3 to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new Tri-State substation just east of Cheyenne that will be named for the respected director. The Wayne Child Substation will be located south of the new Archer Development Complex currently being constructed by Laramie County and will provide electrical power to local customers and upgrade the reliability of the existing transmission line system. It will be constructed in two phases and will eventually occupy 30 acres.

Phase I will serve Tri-State member co-op High West Energy, meeting the load for the Archer Development Complex in 2012. It involves construction of an access road, a 5.5-acre distribution substation, a storm water detention pond and a 230-kilovolt ‘tie-line’ to the existing Archer Substation owned and operated by the Western Area Power Administration. “The Wayne Child Substation will provide the Laramie County Archer Complex with a very reliable energy source as well as providing backup to adjacent area substations for many years,” said Lloyd Sisson, engineering manager at High West Energy.

Phase II involves connecting Tri-State’s existing Laramie River Station to Story 345-kilovolt transmission line to increase system reliability and could begin as soon as 2014.

• View photos from the event

Combining High West Energy and Tri-State equipment into one facility increases efficiencies and minimizes the facility footprint and environmental effects. The project will consolidate and more efficiently serve both Tri-State’s need to increase system reliability and High West Energy’s need to provide electrical service to Laramie County’s new Archer Development Complex.

The legacy of Wayne Child

Two years ago, the board of directors of High West Energy voted unanimously to name the new substation for Wayne Child, pointing to his significant contributions to High West Energy, Tri-State and Basin Electric. “Wayne Child’s many years of leadership have brought a lot of success and progress to the rural electric industry and it is fitting that we attach his name to this new Tri-State substation to show our appreciation for his many contributions and continued support of consumer-owned power in the West,” said Joel Bladow, Tri-State’s senior vice president of transmission.

In 37 years, Child has spearheaded the transformation of High West Energy from a simple wires and pole company to a leader in U.S. distribution cooperatives with a GIS/GPS system, AMR meter technology, up-to-date equipment and the highest standards of reliability.  The Cheyenne-area native has served on numerous boards and committees over the years – including the Wyoming Rural Electric Association — and supported many other state and national organizations.

Child has served on Tri-State’s board for 29 years and as assistant secretary for 25 of them. During his Tri-State tenure, Child helped oversee the Colorado-Ute acquisition and Plains G&T merger. In the early 1990s, he contributed key leadership to take on Pacific Power & Light in upholding the “all-requirements” contract – a historic and successful fight. Together with other members of the board, Child also helped create Tri-State’s highly successful Energy Efficiency Products program 27 years ago, which set standards and incentives for saving energy, purchasing high efficiency products and using electricity in the most efficient manner possible.

DMEA spokesman Tom Polikalas said the Japanese utilities are looking for ways to accelerate the rate at which they are integrating more renewable energy resources into their nation’s power grid.

• Read more

Editor’s note: The following article was written by the 9-year-old daughter of a Tri-State employee who, along with many other youngsters, participated in “Take Our Sons and Daughters To Work” day at Tri-State’s headquarters on April 26.

Kids of people who work at Tri-State got to be at work with their parents on Thursday, April 26, experiencing the world at Tri-State. This is a national event called Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day. The event is to educate children around the country to see what their parents do for a living and teach them why work is important.

My day started with a meeting first thing in the morning to help plan the day. I got an assignment to write this story. Next, I took a tour of the operations center with other kids visiting Tri-State and saw how electricity is kept flowing in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.

In the afternoon, I went on another tour of an area called energy markets. I learned how Tri-State gets just enough electricity to houses so people can turn on their lights, cook their meals, get Internet access and many other important things. Next, I went to a meeting and listened to a group of people plan how to make a new tool kit to help people use Tri-State’s electricity smarter.

I had a fun day and it seemed like the people working at Tri-State work hard and do their jobs well. I’m glad I got to experience Tri-State and learn how important electricity is to us. (The chocolate in the graphics department was a big bonus, too!)