Kansas Power Pool’s Mark Chesney To Retire This Month

Kansas Power Pool (KPP) CEO and General Manager Mark Chesney, who began his work at KPP more than nine years ago, is set to retire at the end of January. He will be succeeded by Colin Hansen, current Executive Director of Kansas Municipal Utilities and American Public Power Association (APPA) Board Chairman.

He started his career in public power with the Grand River Dam Authority in his native Oklahoma.  Working 10 years at GRDA, his first duties were economic development where he was a member of, and led, three commissions devoted to development in northeast Oklahoma. 

Later, he led GRDA staff in industrial key account management, purchase power contract negotiation/administration as well as media services management.  Eventually, as Assistant General Manager of Energy Marketing and Development, he managed market and transmission operations personnel at GRDA’s energy control center.

In the year 2000 Mark joined the staff at the Utah Municipal Power Agency as their Operations Manager.  His tenure there included supervising personnel in the scheduling, trading and dispatching of energy. Among his other duties were new power supply screening, the management of the agency’s transmission-dependent relationship with PacifiCorp and the hydro allocation entitlements from the Colorado River Storage Projects of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA).

Returning to Oklahoma in 2010, Chesney served just over two years as the General Manager of the Tahlequah Public Works Authority.

Since late 2012, he has served in his current position with KPP, a joint action agency comprised of 24 electric utilities in Kansas.  His tenure has been marked by increases in the KPP resource portfolio, improved cash reserves and liquidity and an upgrade in the KPP bond rating.  Achieving member city contract uniformity was also a notable KPP milestone.

As the end of his professional career began to approach, Mark was elected in 2018 to the Board of Directors of APPA. Last summer, at APPA’s national conference, he received the James D. Donovan Individual Achievement Award.