For the past 140 years, Black Hills Energy has been improving life with energy. The company’s roots take us back to 1883 in Deadwood, South Dakota, where Black Hills Electric Light Company first illuminated the mining town. Fourteen decades later, the company’s trusted presence has empowered the success of its now 1.3 million natural gas and electric customers across eight states. The culture of the company, colored by the values of its people and humble leadership has allowed Black Hills Corporation to grow from a local power company to a multi-billion-dollar electric and natural gas utility.
“Our people and our culture are the key to our success. As a small utility we took major risks to expand when opportunities arose,” said Marne Jones, Black Hills Energy senior vice president of utilities. “Small energy companies organized, reorganized, combined, and consolidated over the course of many decades to make Black Hills Corporation. I’m humbled to get to be part of its legacy.”
Combining companies through acquisition is much more than a financial growth decision. For Black Hills Energy, the focus has always been delivering safe, reliable and cost-effective energy to meet the needs of its customers and growing communities.
Black Hills Energy’s Strategic Acquisitions
The company made its first major acquisition in 2005 with its purchase of Cheyenne Light from Xcel Energy, spurring a growth strategy that would guide the company for the next decade. To prepare for continued expansion, the company restructured, creating an over-arching service company to house central functions such as accounting, IT, human resources, regulatory, legal and governmental affairs. Horizon Point, Rapid City headquarters, primarily houses those corporate functions today.
The Aquila acquisition in 2008 was the company’s largest expansion to date, growing the company’s service territory into Colorado, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska and increasing the employee count to more than 2,000. Following the acquisition, Black Hills Energy needed to unite the employee base, now spread across seven states, around a common identity. Through the adoption of a mission, vision and core values that defined the company’s commitment to its employees, customers, and shareholders – the foundation for the future of the company was established. Since then, the Black Hills Energy team has been ‘improving life with energy’ and unified under the principles of Agility, Communication, Creating Value, Customer Service, Integrity, Leadership, Partnership, Respect, and Safety. These foundational principles guided Black Hills Energy during the next era of growth.
“When Black Hills Energy acquired SourceGas in 2016, we further expanded our footprint in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming and added Arkansas. This added over 400,000 customers.” Marne Jones senior vice president of utilities explained, “The logistics were staggering, but our guiding principles were firmly centered around serving the over 800 communities in our growing footprint. We were intentional about incorporating our core values into the fiber of the culture of our larger company.”
Through the history of acquisitions, Black Hills Energy has learned many lessons. Integrating various operational systems and practices, different technologies, and managing larger personnel structures are massive undertakings for any organization merging established entities. By empowering employees to seek solutions guided by foundational principles, Black Hills Energy has been able to overcome challenges and come out on the other side as a stronger company.
“Now more than ever, our ability to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective energy drives us to meet the growing needs of our customers today and in the future,” said Jones. “I’m confident that our culture and our teams are prepared for the future– and stand ready to provide essential, life-saving energy to our customers for years to come.”
