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About Us

Basin Electric Power Cooperative (Basin Electric) is one of the largest electric generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives in the United States. We are the parent company of eight subsidiaries.

Corporate profile

• A not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative incorporated in 1961 to provide supplemental power to a consortium of rural electric cooperatives
• Diverse energy portfolio: coal, gas, oil, nuclear, distributed, and renewable energy, including wind power
• Consumer owned by 136 member cooperative systems
• Members' service territories comprise 540,000 square miles in nine states
• By end of year 2013 Basin Electric will operate 4,824 megawatts (MW) of wholesale electric generating capacity and have 5,289.2 MW of capacity within its generation portfolio
• Owns 2,165 miles and maintains 2,250 miles of high-voltage transmission, and owns and maintains equipment in 70 switchyards and 149 telecommunication sites
• Serves 2.8 million electric consumers

Statistics updated March 1, 2013 for End of Year 2013.

Energy profile

Basin Electric’s core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our 136 member rural electric systems, which are located in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Our largest subsidiary, the for-profit Dakota Gasification Company, owns and operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, ND, which gasifies lignite coal and captures some of the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and sends them to depleted Canadian oil fields for geologic sequestration.

Basin Electric will own 3,866 megawatts (MW) and operate 4,824 MW of electric generating capacity by end of year 2013 of which 987 MW is for participants of the Missouri Basin Power Project (MBPP), and 80 MW is jointly owned by Basin Electric and its Class A member, Corn Belt Power Cooperative, Humboldt, IA. Basin Electric's generation facilities are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota and Iowa.  Most of Basin Electric's baseload capacity comes from coal. Peaking facilities are oil or gas-based.

Basin Electric’s total winter season generation capacity portfolio by end of year 2013 will be 5,289 MW. Of that, Basin Electric has purchased a total of 1,454 MW of electric generation capacity/energy, including 482 total MW of renewable energy of which 437.51 MW are wind energy, 44 MW are waste heat (known as recovered energy generation - REG) energy, and 690 kW is from flare-gas facilities in North Dakota. Our purchased power portfolio also includes 77 MW of nuclear energy.