S.D. renewable energy units recognized in national pubs
May 21, 2007
Recent editions of two national publications salute several renewable energy projects installed in South Dakota during 2006. Touchstone Energy Cooperatives were key players in connecting these innovative, environmentally-friendly units to the electric grid.
Basin Electric Power Cooperative, a regional power supplier based in Bismarck, N.D. completed power purchase agreements with the project developers. East River Electric Power Cooperative, which operates a 2,600-mile high-voltage transmission system in eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota, helped developers with electric system interconnections.
Renewables Highlighted in Utility Publication
An article in Rural Electric Magazine features several of the renewable generators developed during 2006 in eastern South Dakota. The professional magazine is the information source for more than 900 electric cooperatives in 47 states that are members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
The May edition article, “Grassroots Generation,” focuses on the 167 megawatts (MW) of new small generating units that Basin Electric and East River added to their power supply during 2006. The article features the Oak Lane Hutterite Colony wind turbines, Midwest Dairy Institute digester and Northern Border Pipeline heat-recovery units.
The two small wind turbines, installed by the Hutterite Colony near Alexandria, S.D. and rated at 160 kilowatts (kW), were connected to the Central Electric Cooperative distribution system in early 2006. Central Electric was also host to the first two utility-scale wind turbines installed in South Dakota, constructed by Basin Electric and East River in 2001 at Chamberlain. A total of 93 utility-scale wind turbines at three windfarms and several other sites in the region are generating electricity for the cooperatives -- enough power to serve 40,000 average homes, the article noted.
At the dairy institute, a 2,400-head milking operation near Milbank, manure is being turned into power. The animal waste is pumped into a closed digester building, where it decomposes -- producing methane. In addition to reducing odors, the process provides methane to fuel the dairy's boiler for heating buildings/water and running a 160-kW generator, which is connected to Whetstone Valley Electric Cooperative lines.
The “family (of electric cooperatives) finds distributed generation projects play a big role in meeting short-term power supply needs, driving local economic development and boosting clean and renewable energy sources,” the article said.
Read the article "Grassroots Generation"
Heat-Recovery Projects win Pacesetter Plant Award
A gas-turbine industry publication, the Combined Cycle Journal, awarded a 2007 Pacesetter Plant Award to the four heat-recovery projects along the Northern Border Pipeline. The print and online publication serves thousands of professionals at gas-turbine-based power plants around the world.
The spring edition article describes how the energy in the hot exhaust vapors of natural gas pipeline compressors is captured through heat exchangers to generate electricity. These four plants, which produce power without burning fuel or causing emissions, are the first pipeline stations in the world to use this technology developed by Ormat Technologies, Inc. Each unit produces about 5.5-MW of nearly continuous power, enough to serve 5,000 average homes.
As participants in the project, Basin Electric negotiated the power purchase agreement. East River installed substations and 13 miles of transmission lines to connect the three South Dakota units to the electric grid. The units are located near Wetonka, Clark and Estelline/Clear Lake in South Dakota and near St. Anthony, N.D.
"Basin Electric... has confirmed the viability of recovering heat from the exhaust of gas turbines driving pipeline compressors and converting it into green megawatts," wrote the magazine publisher. Click here to read the rest of the article.
"These new environmentally-friendly resources are helping Touchstone Energy Cooperatives meet the growing demand for electricity by the member-consumers in the region," said East River General Manager Jeff Nelson, “while continuing to supply reliable electricity at the lowest-possible cost. When we add these new renewables to our traditional clean hydropower supply from the federal dams, approximately one third of East River's power supply comes from naturally-renewing or recycled-energy resources."
