SPP director makes jump from monitoring parolees to helping expand the power grid

Kris Raper, senior director regulatory policy

Kris Raper’s career path took her from wrapping ankle monitors on parolees to being appointed by the governor of Idaho to the commission regulating electric utilities.

Since January, she’s added SPP to her resume.  She’s senior director of regulatory policy, a newly created position focused on issues in SPP’s western footprint. She brought ideal experience and knowledge to the job, working as a state regulator and as a private sector energy executive.

“What I love about SPP is everybody tells you they’re so glad you’re working for the company,” Raper said. “They’re so glad you are part of the team. They show so much appreciation for the contribution. To be able to come in and sit with members of the executive team and have them listen and actually respond and react meant so much.”

But back in the 90s, Raper was making sure monitors fit on the appropriate ankles, inputting parolee information in the computer, and riding along on client checks with parole officers.

She thought she was called to do the work. She loved it. Until she didn’t.

“My emphasis in college was corrections and counseling, and I really wanted to help people,” Raper said. “That was my goal. I did pre-release classes at the prison. When I was assisting in work release programs I really wanted to help the clients do better. But it didn't take more than a year, year and a half, within the probation and parole environment to realize that officers become so jaded. I didn't want to become that person.”

Raper, 54, was born in Delaware. When she was in third grade, there was a massive explosion at the Amoco chemical plant where her father worked. The blast killed six people, injured 30, involved 12 fire departments, forced the evacuation of 1,000 people, and made national news. She remembers her father going down to the plant to check on his co-workers and help assess damage.

Later, the company offered transfers to employees.

So, the family moved to Sandy, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City. She recalled fondly traveling across country in the family Mercury Monarch sedan, joining her sister, a dog, a guinea pig, and a hamster in the backseat. She went to the local high school where she participated on the gymnastics team.

“I liked the vault and I liked the beam, which was cool, except for when I fell and broke my foot,” she said.

She went to Boise State University and immediately fell in love with the area. After graduating and following her brief career in criminal justice, she worked at a group home for children with disabilities and at an answering service. She then pivoted to law school at the University of Idaho.

“I didn’t even know what I was going to do with a law degree,” Raper said. “But the research and analysis of legal work intrigued me.”

She started out as a clerk at the Idaho Industrial Commission, which handles workers compensation cases.

Later, she was hired as a deputy attorney general assigned to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC), her first exposure to the energy industry.

“I loved it,” she said. “I actually argued twice, on behalf of the IPUC, at the Idaho Supreme Court and won both times, so that was good. It was just really interesting work. My dad was an electrician, which I find ironic for what I do for a living now.”

After a few years, a spot became available on the commission. Following a thorough vetting process, Gov. Butch Otter appointed her as a commissioner in 2015.

Raper dove right into her new assignment, making an intentional effort at taking an active role in regional industry affairs. She noted the “really influential spot” Idaho has in the middle of the Western Interconnection grid between the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West states.

As such, she participated in a lot of conversations about the use of renewable energy and fossil fuels. She listened a lot, built relations, and absorbed an understanding of the cultures of the varying interest groups in western energy circles. She even had the opportunity to testify before Congress.

Her acumen in the field didn’t go unnoticed. She wasn’t trying to leave the commission. She thought she would retire working for the state of Idaho. But an opportunity was presented to her to promote the innovative work at the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). In 2022, she was hired as vice president of strategic engagement and external affairs for WECC.

She relocated leasing an apartment in Salt Lake City, where WECC is headquartered, while her husband and her daughter remained in Boise.

Uninvited personal challenges soon arrived.

A few months after taking the new job, her husband died.

“It was a heart issue that was unknown,” Raper said. “He passed away suddenly. So that changed everything. My whole support network was in Boise. I tried to figure it out, and I tried to find balance that could make me happy and still allow me to do the work, which I really loved. I had a terrific team at WECC. But [the back and forth between Salt Lake City and Boise] was wearing on me over time.”

To compound her grief, or perhaps distract from it, Boise demanded even more of her time after her daughter, Peyton, now 21, sustained a serious leg break. It happened in a horse-riding accident not long after her high school graduation and required extended TLC from her mother.

After a couple of years, Raper reached out to a longtime industry friend, SPP Executive Vice President and General Counsel Paul Suskie, himself a former Public Service Commission member in Arkansas.

Turns out, SPP was looking for someone with western ties and experience to help advance the regional transmission organization membership expansion and the upcoming Markets+ energy market.

As an added plus, SPP was good with her working from Boise because a western base was essential for working with stakeholders in that region of the country.

Raper began her new role in January. Talking about her career change, she became emotional, expressing immense gratitude.

“You know, you have an event like your spouse dying and it’s all you can do to just maintain for a little while,” she said. “I had waited to sort of let things go where they were going to go and try to figure it out, and this was an affirmative decision on my part to move in a direction, to a different-looking future. Coming to SPP felt really good. It felt like the universe was gifting me a thing. It was going to be a big change but the minute I made the decision it just felt right.”