Ethanol plant will be LREC’s largest load

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, January 7, 2008

In 2007 the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) awarded Pelican Rapids-based Lake Region Electric Cooperative the right to serve the new ethanol plant northwest of Fergus Falls that will come on line this spring. The ethanol plant, located within the cooperative’s service territory, will be LREC’s largest load.

Plant specifications called for two 2,500 k Va transformers, four 2,000 k Va transformers, one 75 k Va three-phase transformer and one 50 kVa single-phase transformer.

When footings were poured in late summer 2007, construction began on the new substation located next to LREC’s existing 5,000 k Va substation. In August, when most of the buildings were in place, crews trenched about 1,000 feet of underground conductor to the large transformers. In October the substation was completed.

The dry mill corn-to-ethanol production facility sits on a 109-acre site near County Road 116. The timeline calls for the mill to produce ethanol in the first quarter of 2008. All out-bound traffic will exit to the south of County Road 116. The entrance will be along 240th Street.

The ethanol plant will use about 24.3 million bushels of corn a year. It will be permitted to produce up to 65 million gallons of ethanol a year. In the start-up stages, production is expected to be 57.5 million gallons a year. It will use close to 50 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

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