In 1952, rural communities across the American West faced a fundamental challenge: the lack of reliable electricity to power their homes, farms, and businesses. That year, a group of electric cooperatives came together with a shared vision - to form a not-for-profit power supplier that would serve the needs of rural areas that investor-owned utilities had overlooked. Thus, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association was born, built on the cooperative principle that neighbors should work together to solve common challenges.
Over seven decades later, Tri-State has grown from those humble beginnings into a vital energy lifeline serving more than one million consumers across nearly 200,000 square miles in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. What started as a commitment to bring basic power to rural areas has evolved into a forward-looking organization leading the energy transition. Today, Tri-State operates a diverse portfolio of natural gas, wind, and solar resources alongside nearly 6,000 miles of transmission infrastructure, all while staying true to its founding mission of delivering reliable, affordable, and responsible electricity to member-owned cooperatives and public power districts.