Basin Electric Power Cooperative

Corporate profile

• A not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative incorporated in 1961 to provide supplemental power to a consortium of rural electric cooperatives
• Diverse energy portfolio: coal, gas, oil, nuclear, distributed, and renewable energy, including wind power
• Consumer owned by 137 member cooperative systems
• Members' service territories comprise 540,000 square miles in nine states
• By end of year 2016 Basin Electric will operate 5,205 megawatts (MW) of wholesale electric generating capacity and have 6,555 MW of capacity within its generation portfolio
• Owns 2,334 miles and maintains 2,419 miles of high-voltage transmission, and owns and maintains equipment in 85 switchyards and 205 telecommunication sites
• Serves 2.9 million electric consumers

Statistics updated July 18, 2016, for End of Year 2016.

Energy profile

Basin Electric’s core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our member rural electric systems, which are located in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Our largest subsidiary, the for-profit Dakota Gasification Company, owns and operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, ND, which gasifies lignite coal and captures some of the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and sends them to depleted Canadian oil fields for geologic sequestration.

Basin Electric will own 4,217 megawatts (MW) and operate 5,205 MW of electric generating capacity by end of year 2016 of which 987 MW is for participants of the Missouri Basin Power Project (MBPP), and 80 MW is jointly owned by Basin Electric and its Class A member, Corn Belt Power Cooperative, Humboldt, IA. Basin Electric owns generation in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Iowa, and additionally purchases power from facilities in Minnesota, Colorado and Nebraska. Most of Basin Electric's baseload capacity comes from coal. Peaking facilities are oil or gas-based.

Basin Electric’s total winter season generation capacity portfolio by end of year 2016 will be 6,555 MW. Of that, Basin Electric has purchased a total of 2,338 MW of electric generation capacity/energy, including 1,577 total MW of renewable energy of which 1,533 MW are wind energy, and 44 MW are waste heat energy (known as recovered energy generation - REG). Our purchased power portfolio also includes 62 MW of nuclear energy.