Tri-State marks 60 years of service

By most measures Tri-State is looking pretty good for a 60-year-old. The G&T’s official birthday was Saturday, May 19, 2012. (Editor’s note: As an employee who has been around for more than half of those years, I can say without hesitation that the transformation during just the last few decades has been nothing short of amazing.)

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

Updated: May 21, 2012