Area power suppliers finalists for major federal funding

REGIONAL— Two regional power suppliers serving electric customers in northern St. Louis County are finalists for a federal funding package that could substantially ease the cost of reducing the region’s carbon footprint.
In a release issued Sept. 5, the USDA’s Rural Development announced that both Great River Energy and Minnkota Power are finalists for funding under the recently approved Empowering Rural America program. Lake Country Power, which serves much of east central and northeastern Minnesota, is one of Great River’s 27 member cooperatives, while North Star Electric, which serves far northern St. Louis County and points west, is served by Minnkota.
The details of the two power suppliers’ proposal aren’t being released at this point, since the announced finalists go through a period of technical and financial review before the final go-ahead for funding. Even so, last week’s announcement was a major win for the power suppliers involved. “We’re thrilled we’ve been announced as finalists,” said Trevor Roy, media spokesperson for Great River Energy.
How much money the power producers might actually receive isn’t being released yet, said Roy, although the nonprofit Energy News Network pegged Great River’s overall request at $970 million in a report last month.
“When we actually get the money, we’ll shout it so loud you’ll hear it all the way to Ely,” said Roy. “It’s a significant amount of money.”
A USDA summary of the two proposals shows both power suppliers hope to use the funding to procure significant additional wind energy along with other innovative plans.
Great River is seeking to add an additional 1,275 megawatts of wind power across North Dakota and western Minnesota. According to the USDA, the proposed investments are estimated to create over 1,600 short and long-term jobs and save members $30 million annually on average over business as usual. The plan, proposed by Great River along with a consortium of its member cooperatives, will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 5.49 million tons annually, avoiding the equivalent pollution of 1.3 million gasoline-powered cars each year. “Our consortium laid out an innovative portfolio of projects and power purchase agreements that will benefit cooperative members across Minnesota,” said Great River Energy President and Chief Executive Officer David Saggau.
Carbon capture
Minnkota’s proposal focuses on funding its Project Tundra, a carbon capture and storage development slated for construction adjacent to the Milton R. Young powerplant near Center, N.D. “It’s an effort on our part to try to figure out how to capture carbon dioxide off the back side of our largest coal plant,” said Minnkota President and CEO Mac McLennan. “It works basically by running the flue gas that comes out of the plant through a scrubber that pulls the C02 out of it.”
From there, the C02 is pumped anywhere from 4,000-10,000 feet underground, into layers of porous sandstone that can absorb large quantities of the gas. The design is expected to be able to capture and store up to 4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. That makes it the largest such project directly associated with a power plant proposed anywhere in the U.S.
In addition to carbon capture, Minnkota is proposing to add 370 megawatts of wind energy, located in North Dakota. Combined, the proposal is expected to create hundreds of short- and long-term jobs, while providing while reducing greenhouse gas pollution by 4.3 million tons—the equivalent pollution from 1 million cars— annually.
Progress towards renewable standard
While Minnkota is pursuing carbon capture technology as a way to retain coal as a viable energy source, Great River has rapidly moved away from coal and has been able to stabilize its wholesale power costs at the same time.
In 2022, the company sold off its flagship Coal Creek power plant while it retained rights to a major power transmission system, enabling Great Energy to deliver wind energy to users in Minnesota. “These measures have Great River Energy well positioned as a new state law requires electric utilities to serve 100 percent of retail electric sales with technology that does not emit carbon dioxide by 2040,” states Great River’s 2022 annual report.