At 5:30 a.m., Kyle Hicks is already several days ahead.
Before most people start their commute, he is watching weather models shift, load forecasts update and market prices take shape. Behind the secured CIP doors, those early decisions help determine how Platte River shows up in the market and maintains the reliability the owner communities rely on.
Kyle’s path to the trading desk began in 2010 when he was hired as a power systems operator trainee. Back then, transmission and generation shared the same room. Operators rotated through everything switching lines, monitoring generation and buying and selling power, sometimes all in the same shift.
“You had to understand the whole system,” Kyle says.
When generation and transmission split in 2014, Kyle stayed with generation. For more than a decade, much of it on night shift, he worked real-time operations where decisions were immediate, and any mistakes were hopefully minimal. In 2023, he moved into his current role as a senior energy trader, a job he calls his favorite.
The timing mattered. Platte River transitioned into the SPP Regional Transmission Organization on April 1, and Kyle helped navigate that shift from the generation desk. During the testing phase, the day-ahead team effectively ran two markets at once while maintaining current operations and learning future rules.
“We were doing today’s job while training for tomorrow,” Kyle says. “That’s the challenging part.”
The new market changes everything. Platte River buys its load from the market and sells all its generation into it. It also means balancing fuel risk, coordinating closely with operations and being ready when the market calls on units with little notice. The market decides which units run and when. There are new strategies around gas hedging, new levels of coordination with operations and constant situational awareness.
Kyle’s days start early and move fast. He reviews forecasts, unit constraints, outages and weather. He decides whether the system is long or short, buys gas if needed and submits bids that will shape the next day’s operations. Much of the work happens long before anything is visible.
“It’s less transactional now,” he says. “We’re in it together.”
What keeps him grounded is the team. After 16 years at Platte River, Kyle describes the power markets group as another family built on trust, respect and a shared sense of responsibility.
“What we do matters,” he says. “Providing power is arguably the most important asset that our owner communities depend on, and people at Platte River care about doing it right.”
Outside the control room, life slows down. Kyle spends time with his wife Erin and their two teenage daughters, stays active in his church and teaches Sunday school to two and three-year-olds. He golfs when he can, travels with his family and every summer ends up at a beach somewhere.
Most importantly, besides helping our communities have reliable power, he is also a local celebrity! So, stop by the Loveland Nordy’s BBQ and order the Hicksy Double Double Burger to get a taste of what he’s all about.