A more appropriate geography for Mike Kruger

States and provinces in the Western electric grid have many common challenges. Can the Institute of Western Energy that he will oversee help them formulate solutions?

by Allen Best

In March 2025, Mike Kruger left the Colorado Solar and Storage Association after six years at the helm. Those were good years for the solar industry in Colorado. Declining prices had converged with Colorado’s public policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Where Kruger landed surprised many people. He was chief operating officer of Jordan Energy and Food Enterprises. That had him working some times in the field of building agrivoltaics but also had him working in Connecticut. Neither fully matched his enthusiasms or skills. He is, above all, a people person, comfortable both in a classroom and in a Congressional office. His earlier career stops had included both.

Kruger’s new job as of June 1 looks to be a more comfortable fit. Kruger is now the first full-time executive director of the Institute for Western Energy. His task will be to convene stakeholders in the Western electric grid on issues of mutual concern.

That non-profit organization was founded in 2017 by Chris Hansen, Gina Buhler and the late Larry Holdren with the mission of convening power players in the energy sector in Colorado and other Western states in “intentionally intimate settings to engage in meaningful conversations about North America’s energy and water future.”

The organization, formally called the Colorado Energy & Water Institute, has had one or two such invitation-only meetings a year, first at Steamboat Springs and then at the Devil’s Thumb Ranch near Tabernash. In practice, water has never been much of the organization’s agenda, although Hansen makes the argument that water and energy are inevitably linked, because energy in many cases requires water.

What drove creation of the organization, said Kruger, was the sluggish conversation about regional markets. In other words, how could electricity sharing via an organized market become a reality for Colorado and other Western states?

“The conversations about Western markets had been around for awhile, but because of personalities, lack of trust, and lack of information, it never went very far,” said Kruger. The three founders saw a “real need to restart conversations around the Western market because of the value proposition.”

Sessions were subsequently convened. What was said in those meetings cannot be ascertained. They were all invitation-only gatherings with the intention of creating an atmosphere conducive to frank and open discussions.

Movement has occurred. Hansen, then a state senator representing a Denver district, in 2021 sponsored a bill that said all electric transmission utilities in Colorado must join an organized wholesale market no later than 2030. Hansen had lined up bi-partisan co-sponsors for SB21-072, including two Republican legislators from Montrose County. It passed with minimal opposition, mostly from Republicans who could never vote for something touched by a Democrat. Hansen was a Democrat.

Another state legislator but from Nevada also returned home and sponsored a bill that ultimately became a law. It, too, requires Nevada utilities to join wholesale markets.

Has the organized-markets law made any difference in Colorado? Hard to say exactly. The role of the organization, said Kruger, may have amounted to pushing a boulder downhill.

The Southwest Power Pool launched its regional transmission organization on April 1 with many of Colorado’s larger utilities as participants as well as others in Wyoming, Utah and Arizona. Notably absent was Xcel, which more tepidly joined in a less robust day-ahead market offered by SPP. But it does have a state mandate to move beyond dipping its pinkies into a wholesale market by 2030.

Since then, the institute has had few if any notable successes. It has nonetheless done a modestly good job of raising money. In 2024, for example, it reported revenue of $630,000, with nearly half of that money coming from contributions. Nearly all the remaining revenue that year came from “program services,” according to a report on Candid.

Annual revenue since 2021, when the institute became a non-profit, has ranged from $235,000 and $551,000. The founders have been paid between $12,500 and $35,0900 annually.

Western Power Players is one of the institute’s two programs. At a recent gathering, for example, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper spoke about his proposed Energy Permitting Reform Act. Also speaking were Kathleen Staks, of Western Freedom, Julie Murphy, director of the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and Uday Varadarajan, CEO of Colectric, who was to have spoken about partnerships between utilities and data centers.

Among those who have attended are at least two Colorado PUC members, Tom Plant and Eric Blank, and the following utility CEOs: Robert Kenney, Duane Highley, Mark Gabriel, and Bryan Hannegan. Plus individuals from Oregon, New Mexico and Wyoming.

The second program area is called Western Energy Caucus. It now consists of 18 representatives and is strictly bipartisan. It has 36 members, 18 Republicans and 18 Democrats.

The focus of this caucus includes wildfire and many other subject areas that Kruger says he will be working on. A second common challenge is transmission — although some would argue that transmission is not really the work. Mark Gabriel at Colorado’s United Power contends that hyper-localization of generation plus storage will be a far easier hurdle to clear.

A key task will be to assemble key players. They are not necessarily advocates, although you get the idea that environmental groups will not necessarily be on many attendee lists. It is to be strictly non-partisan. It is a 501 (c)(3) after all. But that is the reality of the Western states. A very mixed political bag.

Beyond political differences, all the states are, as Kruger says, like snowflakes. Each is unique. But they do have common ground.

“What we want to do is get them all into a room and bring in experts. If we want to move things forward, how do we move them so that they (utilities, states or others) are not working on their own but on a regional basis,” said Kruger.

“These are issues facing every state in the West. Should Washington and Wyoming not have the same large load tariff? Absolutely not. But will they all come up with something so that utilities and power producers and transmission owners have some rules for the road? We would love to see that.”

Incidentally, the Institute for Western Energy should not be confused with the Western Energy Institute. The latter is a Portland-based organization formed in 2000 that aims to be the “premier non-profit trade association that that offers inclusive access to critical information, professional development, and relationships that matter.”