BROOKINGS — Robert Schulte, a former Huron resident and 1974 South Dakota State University graduate, will be honored as the recipient of the 2023 Wayne E. Knabach Award for Excellence in Power by the Center for Power Systems Studies at South Dakota State University Oct. 2. 

The award honors career contributions to the power industry and is named after the professor who taught hundreds of power systems graduates in his 38 years on campus.

Schulte, originally of Huron and now of Raleigh, North Carolina, is among those graduates. Knabach was a family friend of the Schultes and worked for Herbert Schulte, father of Robert, in the summers early in his career.

After Schulte earned his electrical engineering degree, he spent four years in the Air Force as a communications/electronics officer and 16 years with Northern States Power before opening his own consulting business, Schulte Associates, in 1995.

During his 28 years as a consultant, Robert Schulte has written integrated resource plans, worked on project developments, served as interim CEO and COO, and done other services for energy companies nationwide. He is the author of numerous industry articles on utility resource planning, transmission and energy storage.

Currently, Schulte is the managing member for Power from the Prairie LLC, which proposes a 4,000-megawatt, high voltage direct current line from the wind fields of southern Wyoming to the wind fields of north central Iowa.

“This is my all-time favorite project. It’s really doing some innovative things. It involves skills in resource planning, engineering, regulatory affairs and interregional/interutility politics; the latter they do not teach in engineering school. It could potentially connect 3,000-megawatt, or $4.5 billion of new renewables in South Dakota that wouldn’t otherwise have access to the nation’s power grid or remote markets.“