Basin Electric Says Planned Power Plant Not Driven by Data Centers

(Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Basin Electric Power Cooperative officials testified that data centers are not behind the need for a natural gas-fired power plant in northwest North Dakota but it is getting requests from potential large-load customers.

Basin officials made comments Monday at a Public Service Commission hearing in Williston on its proposed Bison Generation Station near Epping in Williams County.

The project would generate electricity from natural gas that is abundant in North Dakota’s oil-producing region. It also would generate power by using steam produced by the plant to turn turbines.

The nearly $4 billion Bison Generation Station would be the first combined-cycle power plant in North Dakota.

Basin Electric describes the project as one of the largest power generation projects in the cooperative’s history.