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About Us

Basin Electric Headquarters in Bismarck, ND

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.  Find out more: At a Glance.
• Diverse energy portfolio: coal, gas, oil, nuclear, distributed, and renewable energy, including wind power
• Consumer owned by 135 member cooperative systems
• Members' service territories comprise 540,000 square miles in nine states
• By end of year 2010 Basin Electric will operate 3,880 megawatts (MW) of wholesale electric generating capacity

Total coal and gas generation 3,048 MW
Total renewable generation 501 MW
Total committed generation project* 940.6 MW
Total committed wind projects in the Dakotas: 251.5 MW

• Owns 2,015 miles of high-voltage transmission, 65 switchyards and 113 telecommunication sites
• Serves 2.8 million electric consumers

* total includes committed projects for 2011 and beyond, which includes the Dry Fork Station, Deer Creek Station, PrairieWinds SD 1, South Dakota Wind Partners, Baldwin Wind Project and Harvest Wind.

Statistics updated July 1, 2010 for end of year (EOY) 2010.

Energy profile

Basin Electric’s core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our 135 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 2,933 megawatts (MW) and operate 3,880 MW of electric generating capacity by end of year 2010 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. Our electric generation facilities are 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. Construction projects underway include a coal-based generation unit in Wyoming, combined cycle facilities and related transmission construction in South Dakota, Wind generation in North Dakota and South Dakota, and an emissions control upgrade at the Leland Olds Station in North Dakota.

Basin Electric has purchased a total of 878 MW of electric generation capacity/energy, including 376 total MW of renewable energy of which 331.6 MW are wind energy, 44 MW are waste heat (known as recovered energy generation - REG) energy, and 375 kW is from a bio-gas facility in South Dakota. Our purchased power portfolio also includes 77 MW of nuclear energy.

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