Limestone quarry powered by a new source

This summer, a substation and nine-mile high-voltage overhead power line was built to the limestone quarry.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - October 6, 2011

On Oct. 3, the crushing and screening equipment used to operate the Montana Limestone Company quarry began to operate using electricity from a power line rather than from a diesel generator.

For decades, the limestone quarry located 70 miles south of Billings, MT, had been set up as a portable plant. In the 1940’s, it was started primarily to supply limestone to the sugar beet industry. The business grew, and Dakota Coal Company bought Montana Limestone in 2002. Montana Limestone became a subsidiary of Dakota Coal, which is a subsidiary of Basin Electric. Since then, the plant has increased limestone production to 650,000 to 700,000 tons per year. When Leland Olds Station’s wet limestone scrubber begins operation, Montana Limestone will supply 150,000 to 200,000 tons of limestone per year to the plant, located near Stanton, ND.

One aspect that made the Montana Limestone quarry plant portable was that the crushing and screening equipment ran on power from a diesel generator. This summer, a substation and nine-mile high-voltage overhead power line was built to the limestone quarry. The quarry’s equipment began operation using electricity from the power line on Oct. 3. Kurt Kiser, operations manager at Montana Limestone, said, “This will be a great advantage. We won’t have to maintain a diesel engine anymore, and we won’t have to supply diesel fuel for the generator.” Kiser said the air quality permit for the quarry will also reflect a decrease in the amount of particulate matter and other diesel exhaust emissions.

The electricity to the quarry is supplied by Big Horn Rural Electric Company, Basin, WY, a Basin Electric Class C member.

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