COVER STORY: Long-time businesses have impact on region
Business longevity means job security and a means for economic development in communities across the region.
Prairie Business Magazine
- October 6, 2011
Alan Van Ormer
Find the full story here: COVER STORY: Long-time businesses have impact on region
Excerpt:Basin Electric prepared to build on 50-year legacy
Since 2000, Ron Harper has been leading an organization that has been serving people at the end of the electric line for 50 years.
Basin Electric is a consumer-owned wholesale electric generation and transmission cooperative, which has a resource portfolio of more than 4,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity to supply its members,
Basin Electric has 135 member systems that distribute electricity to 2.8 million consumers in nine states spanning the North Dakota to Mexican borders, including: North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, and New Mexico.
The cooperative has grown from $2.3 billion in assets in 2000 to $5.4 billion at the end of 2010 under Harper’s leadership.
One key component of building Basin Electric over the years has been to build alliances not only among member cooperatives, but with other organizations, according to Harper. “Basin Electric was formed in 1961 by a group of visionary leaders who saw the benefits of coming together to build power plants for long-term power supply,” Harper explains. “It was these visionaries that developed long-term generation resources to provide transmission to get the power to their local areas. Today, 135 cooperative members see the value of that continued alliance.”
Not unlike its past, however, Basin Electric also faces challenges as it moves forward.
Meeting members’ load requirements in a regulatory-constrained environment is one of those challenges. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently proposing a number of rules that have significant implications for coal-based developers. “Discussions are happening that could potentially shut down multiple coal plants by 2020,” Harper says. “We have to ask ourselves how we address those rules and how do we create a viable path for coal? Coal is responsible for 50 percent of this nation’s electric generating capacity. If we don’t have coal, then what? Also, what do these rules mean to not only our energy sources, but this nation’s electric reliability?”
Another issue many industries, including Basin Electric, are addressing is an aging work force. “Workforce issues across this country are huge,” Harper says. “Skilled labor is critical and becoming more difficult to replace. These people do a tremendous job, but there just aren’t enough of them because of an aging work force.”
Despite a lagging economy, Basin Electric has still experienced load growth. The biggest growth area for Basin Electric is development of the Bakken oil formation in northwest North Dakota. Current projections show that Basin Electric will need at least 1,320 megawatts of resources to meet that development between now and 2025. “We are going to have to look at the best way to serve this load from a transmission and generation standpoint, and we’ll have to consider a variety of energy resources, including peaking stations, gas turbines and others,” Harper says.
Despite the complex issues Basin Electric is facing, its vision has remained the same: to supply cost-effective wholesale energy along with products and services that support and unite rural America. “Cooperatives were formed by the people, for the people. As long as we always keep that person at the end of the line in mind, our priorities will be in the right place,” Harper says. We’re here to serve.”
Headquarters
1717 East Interstate Avenue
Bismarck, ND 58503-0564 USA
Phone: 701.223.0441
Basin Electric Power Cooperative will provide cost-effective wholesale energy along with products and services that support and unite rural America.
