The company said that since 1995, Black Hills Power residential electricity use has grown more than 40%. In2007, an integrated resource plan prepared by the utility provided an analysis of how increasing electricity demand could be served with a variety of generation resources.
The analysis considered many factors, including the greatest quantity of customer electricity use that could occur at a given point in time, the cost of fuel such as coal and natural gas for electricity generation, the cost to purchase additional electricity, renewable energy resources, energy efficiency programs, and other relevant information.
Based on the conclusions contained in the integrated resource plan analysis, Wygen III was determined to be a low cost option to meet the current and future energy needs of Black Hills Power customers.
On March 16, 2010, Black Hills Power completed a seven-year power purchase agreement with the City of Gillette, Wyoming, which includes an option for Gillette to purchase 23%of Wygen III. Montana-Dakota Utilities previously purchased a 25% ownership interest in the power plant in April 2009.
David Emery, chairman, president and CEO of Black Hills, said: ”We are pleased that Wygen III began providing power to our Black Hills Power customers today. To the credit of our power generation team, we successfully completed the construction of another generation facility cost-effectively and in less than 24 months.
”This mine-mouth, coal-fired power plant, with its use of state-of-the-art emissions control technology, is among the cleanest in the US and will produce low-cost, reliable electricity for the next 45 years.”
