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Tri-State membership gathers for 58th annual meeting
More than 500 electric cooperative representatives and industry officials attended Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s 58th annual meeting April 7-8 at the power supplier’s Westminster, Colo., headquarters, where they reviewed recent activities and addressed numerous issues and challenges facing the electric utility industry. Those in attendance also paid tribute to long-time Tri-State chairman Harold “Hub” Thompson, who, after serving in that position for the past 26 years, announced his retirement as an electric co-op director.
Following the meeting, the association’s board of directors was seated for the upcoming year, including its six officers and three at-large positions that make up the board’s Executive Committee. Under the cooperative business model, each of Tri-State's 44 member distribution systems is represented on its board, which is the democratically-elected governing body of the association.
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Chairman Rick Gordon
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Rick Gordon, representing Tri-State member co-op Mountain View Electric Association (Limon, Colo.), was elected chairman. Gordon first joined Tri-State’s board in 1994 and has served as vice chairman for the past 13 years. He has served on his MVEA’s board since 1992.
Tony Casados, representing Northern Rio Arriba Electric Cooperative (Chama, N.M.), was elected vice chairman, after having served as an assistant secretary for the past nine years. Casados has served on his local co-op’s board since 1982 and has been on the Tri-State board since 2000.
Jim Soehner was re-elected to the position of secretary, which he has held for the past two years. Soehner represents Y-W Electric Association (Akron, Colo.), and has served on the Tri-State board since 1991.
Lou Costello, who has represented Gunnison County Electric Association (Gunnison, Colo.) on the Tri-State board since 1999, was elected treasurer. He had previously served in an at-large capacity on the Executive Committee.
Wayne Child was re-elected to one of two assistant secretary positions, a role he has filled for the past 23 years. Child has been on the Tri-State board for 27 years, representing High West Energy (Pine Bluffs, Wyo.), where he has served since 1973.
Bill Bird, who first joined the Tri-State board in 2004 representing member system Otero County Electric Cooperative (Cloudcroft, N.M.), was elected to the other assistant secretary position. He had previously held one of three at-large seats on the Executive Committee.
The Executive Committee’s three at-large positions are being filled by incumbent Gary Merrifield, representing Sangre De Cristo Electric Association (Buena Vista, Colo.), and newly elected Stuart Morgan from Wheat Belt Public Power District (Sidney, Neb.) and Jack Finnerty from Wheatland Rural Electric Association (Wheatland, Wyo.).
 At the annual meeting, Tri-State executive vice president and general manager Ken Anderson discussed some recent activities and accomplishments from the past year. “Our primary mission – as it always has been – is to deliver on our commitment to provide our member co-ops with a reliable, affordable and responsible supply of electricity,” Anderson said. “As a cooperatively-structured utility, we will continue to stay faithful to our values to ensuring affordable electric power while advancing our strategic initiatives to best position us for the future.”
Anderson stressed that although Tri-State continues to diversify its energy resource portfolio, the association’s existing fleet of generation and transmission facilities remain a key factor in producing and delivering stable and cost-effective power to its member co-ops. “With that in mind,” Anderson said, “our comprehensive maintenance program has been successful in maximizing plant performance, availability and efficiency, along with enhancing our transmission system to relieve constraints and bolster reliability.”
In 2009, Tri-State delivered a record 14.3 million megawatt-hours of electricity to its members, while recording a member peak demand of 2,447 megawatts in July. Combined with off-system energy sales, the G&T sold a total of 18.6 million megawatt-hours for the year, and posted year-end revenues of $1.2 billion and assets of $3.7 billion.
Based in the Denver suburb of Westminster, Tri-State supplies power to 18 member electric cooperatives in Colorado, 12 in New Mexico, eight in Wyoming and six in Nebraska, which in turn provide electricity to nearly 600,000 meters or a population of approximately 1.5 million people.
Updated: April 8, 2010
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