General Manager's message

Fall 2008

Strategic initiatives to help guide Tri-State's future

Ken Anderson

Executive Vice President/General Manager

Long before I assumed my new responsibilities this summer as Tri-State’s general manager, our senior management team embarked on a process to assess the many regulatory, environmental, political and operational challenges that are on the horizon.  With that in mind, we have nearly completed realignment, and, in some cases, expansion of our talent pool to better prepare ourselves for what is certain to be a daunting time for our industry.

With the support of our board of directors, we have identified a series of strategic initiatives that I believe are both vital and attainable in meeting the expectations of our 44 member systems, including:

• Succession planning — Nearly half of the Tri-State workforce will be at or near retirement age in the next decade.  It is vital that we continue to invest in attracting new employees with the best skills available to ensure that we are equipped to handle the many challenges that we are facing.

• Fostering a culture of safety — While our employees have achieved a number industry awards in their daily efforts to avoid accidents and injuries on the job, I believe there is always room for improvement.  With the adoption of programs such as OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs at our power plants, and the renewed efforts of the transmission safety committee, we can accomplish even more to ensure the safety of our workforce.

• Improving load and commodity forecasting — Through the use of advanced technologies, skills and software, we are focusing on developing more precise data that will allow us to project future loads and commodity prices with greater accuracy.

• Investing in renewable resources — In addition, we are participating in a concentrated solar power project in New Mexico and have committed to supporting our members in pursuit of their own local renewable projects, several of which are currently under development.

• Expanding demand-side management and energy efficiency credits programs — We are currently working on a number of fronts with our members to help them more effectively manage their peak loads, boost efficiency and help our members and their consumers save on power costs whenever possible.  Toward that end, we are also assessing more opportunities for expansion of our successful energy efficiency credits program.

• Addressing energy risk — In advance of Tri-State’s long-term efforts to secure additional baseload generation, we are increasingly being required to rely upon natural-gas fueled power to serve our continual load growth.  Tri-State’s power marketing staff is striving to mitigate those higher fuel costs through hedging techniques and other strategies that will lessen our exposure to volatile prices in the marketplace.  The vigilant preventive maintenance program at our generating facilities, coupled with our power exchange agreements with other regional utilities, are among the avenues that Tri-State relies upon to reduce our vulnerability to market-priced, replacement power.

• Developing a greenhouse gas policy — Regardless of which presidential candidate is elected in November, we recognize that new policies will be advanced to address greenhouse gas emissions.  We are working to develop a sound and responsible position on this issue that will not jeopardize reliability to our members or push energy prices beyond the reach of rural electric consumers.

• Bolstering consumer and member support — As power generation reserves become leaner and existing transmission becomes more constrained, the time is now to let our members’ consumers and the general public know that utilities must invest in new power supply infrastructure -- including research, development and demonstration of new technologies as well as development of proven technology that is affordable and environmentally sound.  We’ll also continue to find new tools to inform and support our member systems.  By working together, addressing challenges and seeking innovation, we can help ensure that Tri-State continues to provide the high level of service expected by our members and their consumers.