About us

Corporate Profile

  • A not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative incorporated in 1961 to provide supplemental power to a consortium of rural electric cooperatives
  • Diversified energy portfolio of dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources. Dispatchable resources have a readily available fuel supply to power their generation, whereas non-dispatchable resources rely on intermittent, renewable fuel and produce electricity when weather conditions are right.
  • Consumer owned by 141 member cooperative systems
  • Serves 3 million electric consumers
  • Members' service territories comprise 550,000 square miles in nine states
  • At end of year 2022, Basin Electric operated 5,219 megawatts (MW) of wholesale electric generating capability and had 7,384 MW of generating capacity within its resource portfolio
  • Operates 11 maintenance shop output locations in 4 states
  • Owns 2,526 miles and maintains 2,565 miles of high-voltage transmission
  • Owns and/or maintains substation equipment in 89 locations and has equipment ownership in 16 additional locations
  • Owns and maintains telecommunications equipment at 224 telecommunication sites

Data updated April 2023.

Todd Brickhouse

Organization

Basin Electric’s core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our member rural electric systems, which are located in nine states.

people standing in front of a store

Members

At Basin Electric, our focus is the person at the end of the line. Our member-owners are the reason we exist. That's the co-op difference.
Lineworkers on transmission structure

Transmission

Basin Electric is one of the few utilities that supply electricity on both sides of the national electric system separation.

worker at computer screens

Generation

Using a mix of dispatchable and non-dispatchable generation, you can be sure we've got the power for our members.
People smiling in a row

Career Center

Basin Electric employs over 1,800 people at facilities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. 

RESOURCE PROFILE

Basin Electric's core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our 141 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, North Dakota, which gasifies lignite coal and captures some of the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and sends them to produce several value-added products.

Basin Electric owned 4,277 megawatts (MW) and operated 5,219 MW of electric generating capacity by end of year 2022, of which 981 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, Iowa. Our electric generation facilities are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Iowa. 

Basin Electric's total winter season generating capacity portfolio by the winter 2022/2023 season was 7,384 MW. Of that, Basin Electric has purchased a total of 3,107 MW of electric generating capacity, including 1,525 total MW from renewable resources of which 1,480 MW are from wind turbines, and 45 MW are waste heat energy (known as recovered energy generation - REG).

Data updated April 2023.