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Robert H. Schulte | President, PftP LLC
Bob Schulte is a Principal at Schulte Associates LLC (www.schulteassociates.com). He has
40 years of utility industry experience in very diverse specialties as a manager and executive
in both public and private utilities, and as a consultant to them.
During 16 years with Northern States Power Company (NSP, now a unit of Xcel Energy), he
served as a resource planner, customer energy efficiency program developer, Distribution
Engineering Manager for NSP’s largest division (Minneapolis), Construction and Operations
Manager for St. Paul Division and Metro East Region, General Manager of the South Dakota
Region, NSP VP of Rates and Corporate Strategy, and VP of Customer Service and Marketing.
Bob has planned and permitted large coal-fired power plants, was the original developer of the first large-scale customer
energy efficiency and demand response programs in the Upper Midwest (later versions of which are still in operation today, 35 years later), and installed a 240 MVA transformer under the Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. While Construction and Operating Manager for St. Paul Division he was responsible for all underground and overhead distribution construction. He reorganized union labor agreements, secured cost recovery for decommissioning a nuclear power plant, was responsible for development of the first Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filing in the State of Minnesota including direct customer input, led NSP officer to install the first 10 MW of large-scale wind on the Buffalo Ridge in Southwestern Minnesota where more than 1000 MW operate today, and was responsible for achieving 100 MW of annual peak demand impacts using customer energy efficiency and demand programs.
During the past 25 years in private practice with SA, Bob has led energy storage project due diligence and feasibility studies, strategic assessments of state energy export initiatives, corporate turnarounds of natural gas development companies and municipal power agencies involving interim CEO assignments, led a power agency serving 12 municipal utilities as a market participant in MISO, coordinated development of utility IRPs, and has routinely participated in and led projects involving advanced energy technologies, energy storage including CAES, batteries and pumped hydro, and innovative market approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Bob has been a featured speaker and writer before industry and national organizations. He has routinely appeared before legislative committees, public utility regulatory commissions, Boards of Directors, cooperative utility annual meetings, and municipal utility and power agency Boards and City Councils on energy, project, and regulatory matters.
A native of South Dakota, Bob holds a BSEE (Power Systems) from South Dakota State University (SDSU), and an MSEE (Power Systems) from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has done graduate work at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business and is a U.S. Air Force veteran.
He is co-author with the other PftP LLC team members of numerous industry articles about interregional transmission, replacing fossil-fired generation with renewables and storage, and methods to achieve 100% clean energy. See Publications HERE
