North Dakota’s Largest Coal Plant Set to Close
The post North Dakota’s Largest Coal Plant Set to Close appeared first on POWER Magazine.
The largest coal-fired power plant in North Dakota is scheduled to close in 2022, with the Minnesota-based wholesale electric power cooperative that operates the facility saying the lost generation will be mostly replaced by wind power.
Minnesota-based Great River Energy, which supplies electricity to the suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul, along with other parts of the state, on May 7 announced it will close the 40-year-old Coal Creek Station power plant near Underwood, North Dakota. The plant, which employs about 260 workers, produces about half of the electricity that Great River sells to 28 member-owned electric cooperatives in Wisconsin and Minnesota, according to Jon Brekke, Great River’s vice president. Brekke said the move enables the utility to move “in an opportunistic direction towards an evolved power supply portfolio,” and reflects “significant shifts in the wholesale [power] market.”
The power cooperative said it plans to invest more than $ 1.2 billion to purchase more than 1,100 MW of wind power from new projects, including at least 600 MW of wind power in southern and western Minnesota.…