Basin Electric plans new line

BISMARCK (AP) — A big player in North Dakota’s coal country is moving into the state’s oil patch.

Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, which owns two coal-fired power plants, plans to build a 190-mile electrical transmission line to fuel a growing demand for power in the oil patch, The Bismarck Tribune reported. Construction could start in 2014.

The proposed line would run from the Antelope Valley Station near Beulah to the Williston and Tioga region, where nearly 90 oil rigs are tapping into the rich Bakken shale formation. Basin’s in-house projections show that by 2025, demand for electricity in the oil patch will increase by an amount equal to one-fourth of all the power produced now in North Dakota.

“At this point, we’re basically playing catch-up since the load has developed so quickly,” said Mike Risan, Basin’s vice president of transmission. “As we move forward, we are addressing the issue with a phased approach to avoid the possible risk of overbuilding the transmission system in the event the rate of growth diminishes.”

The line will need the approval of state regulators. Basin also has applied for financing from the Rural Utilities Service, an agency of the federal Agriculture Department, which requires an environmental assessment of the project. The agency will hold public meetings in Williston and Killdeer next week to get comments on three proposed corridors for the line that would run through Mercer, Dunn, Billings, McKenzie, Williams and Mountrail counties.

Basin also plans a natural gas-fired “peaking” plant near Williston. Such plants typically run primarily when there is a high demand for electricity. The plant will be near a natural gas gathering and processing plant to be constructed by ONEOK Partners, Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said.

Basin supplies power to 135 rural electric systems in the Dakotas, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.

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