What Innovation Means To A G&T Co-op Spread Across Four States

I was intrigued to learn that Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., based in a Denver suburb, has hired a chief energy innovations officer. He is Reg Rudolph, and he has an unusual history in the world of electric cooperatives: Not only were he and his father chief executive officers of co-ops, but they also were CEOs at different co-ops at the same time.

In January, Rudolph left his role as CEO of the San Isabel Electric Association, Inc., a Colorado transmission member of Tri-State, to join Tri-State.

“My role is to help build what I call ‘the co-operative energy ecosystem,’ trying to balance and optimize power supply and power demand,” Rudolph told me in a telephone interview.

That assignment is as broad as it sounds. He is charged with finding optimum systems and technologies that fit the sprawling needs of the 42 distribution systems, including co-ops and public power districts, that make up the Tri-State association.

In the past, Rudolph said, utilities ran on a simple basis: You had generation and power lines delivering electricity to consumers, for which you charged rates.

“But now, as we look to the future, we have to try and work out how we integrate distributed energy resources, including intermittent renewables. My role is to create this new ecosystem that is a more finely tuned supply-and-demand engine.”

That fine-tuning is demanding.

Carbon Management Over Four States

Tri-State, contrary to its name, is active in four states: It serves member distribution companies in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The demands and expectations of the states and their regulators are in some ways contradictory. Colorado is committed to a rapid transition to clean power whereas Wyoming is fighting a rear-guard defense of its coal industry, while advancing carbon management technologies. In Colorado, Tri-State is committed to being carbon-free by 2040. Elsewhere in its association, the pursuit of carbon neutrality may take a little longer.

As Rudolph was explaining the complexities of running a system that is multidimensional with demand-side inputs, distributed energy resources, and the need for real-time decisions, it occurred to me that running a utility is like scoring new music for an orchestra, which will play it without rehearsal.

The force that makes modernization — the switch from carbon-based generation to carbon-free — so challenging is because it must be done in real time: the power must flow. There is no opportunity to shut down during a change or a retooling; the utility imperative always is to keep running.

There are no free lunches in the utility business.

“We have a philosophy at Tri-State that every energy source has some sort of externalities. We’re trying at Tri-State to find the energy sources that have the least negative environmental footprint,” Rudolph told me.

For example, in battery storage, Tri-State likes lithium-ion but has questions about the cost and the environmental impact of the way the materials are sourced. The same environmental concern applies to solar, and the environmental pedigree of panels made in China. Nonetheless the utility is heavily committed to wind and solar, and that commitment is open-ended: There will be more.

“We’re trying to weigh all the options but still keep the lights on,” Rudolph said.

As an innovator, he looks back as well as forward. “We have to look at some old technologies and see if they fit today.”

Something which might not have been useful in the immediate past might have a new future when welded with modern data analytics and speed-of-light connectivity, for example.

Ancient Roman Device Relevant

Rudolph said he was reminded of this in a recent conversation with a friend who told him about an ancient Roman device that can still have application today. I, too, was reminded of this last October, when my wife and I visited the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology on the island of Crete.

Next to decarbonization, Rudolph must seek ways to keep the price of electricity low. Many customers among the 1 million or so are poor, on or below the poverty line, Rudolph said.

“Tri-State has a pretty efficient generation system,” he said. “But when you better integrate the generation and transmission and the distribution system, that’s where we can improve; and that’s why I was brought in.”

As Rudolph sees it, modernization of the whole of the co-operative energy system and the application of demand-side management can reduce costs and assist the whole operation.

But it is a bespoke project: One size does not fit all among Tri-State distribution members. For example, setting incentives for interruptible supply is a different undertaking for a data miner than it is for a farmer with heavy irrigation demands.

“Irrigators want to water whenever they need to during the growing season — not just at night or during the week, and not at all out of season,” Rudolph said.

So, innovation is a subtle business of getting the most out of the present and looking to the future. But Rudolph cautions that while hydrogen and ammonia, small modular reactors, and new storage systems are all tempting for the future, “They aren’t going to keep the costs down and lights on in the near future,” he said. The immediate goal at Tri-State is more solar, more wind, and more fine-tuning of a complex ecosystem.

The Tri-State fuel mix still contains 36.5 percent coal, but this has been reduced by 20 percent since 2019. After adding two large wind projects in 2021, Tri-State boasts nine wind and solar facilities. The utility has more than 735 green megawatts to be constructed in six projects by the end of 2024 – all solar in Colorado and New Mexico — which will make it the largest solar power rural electric cooperative and supports Tri-State’s transition, as even more coal is to be retired. Rudolph says this can be done without triggering a duck curve, and that solar mostly fits the load shape of the association.

At Tri-State, it is hoped that small innovations will lead to big results.