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10 October 2006 -- Dedication ceremonies will be held Oct. 16 and 17 in North Dakota and South Dakota, respectively, for four new power plants that are fueled by hot exhaust. The plants have a total generating capacity of about 22 MW. Basin Electric purchases the electricity produced by the project and integrates it with its other generating facilities.
The power plant equipment for the heat recovery projects was installed and is owned and operated by Ormat, headquartered in Reno, Nev. Basin Electric purchases the electricity under terms of a purchase power agreement with an Ormat subsidiary.
Besides the plants located near St. Anthony and Aberdeen, two others are the Woodland site, located near Clark, and the Hidewood site located near Estelline in South Dakota.
Ron Rebenitsch, Basin Electric's manager of member marketing, said the project involves using the hot exhaust gases from existing compressor stations located along the Northern Border Pipeline to generate electricity. The compressors are driven by natural gas-fueled turbines. "The heat in the compressor exhaust stack is recovered using heat exchangers. The recovered heat is then used to vaporize a fluid to drive a turbine/generator set," he said. "The exhaust temperature is about 900 degrees F." The Northern Border Pipeline travels in a southeasterly direction across North Dakota and South Dakota as it carries natural gas from Canada to the Chicago area.
Rebenitsch said each site has a generating capacity of about 5.5 MW, which is enough capacity to serve the electrical needs of about 5,000 average residential homes. He said the projects will have minimal environmental impact, with the electric generation considered to have zero or near zero emissions. "We consider these plants to be equivalent to renewable energy, given their minimal environmental impact," he said. "The new generators are considered to be base load generation, meaning they'll run almost continuously."
More than 15 miles of 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission line and substation interconnections were constructed to distribute the power from the generators to Basin Electric's members, Rebenitsch said. The lines were constructed and owned by Basin Electric's members, East River Electric Power Cooperative, Madison, S.D., and Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative, Flasher, N.D. The ability to interconnect with these members was an essential element of the projects, he said.
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