OTP: Big Stone II the best option

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ward Uggerud

Otter Tail Power Company, countering some environmental group opposition to Big Stone II, said the proposed coal-fired unit in northeastern South Dakota would be the best option to help meet what the company said is increasing electricity usage in this area of the Upper Midwest.

“Our mission is to produce and deliver electricity as reliably, economically and as environmentally responsibly as possible,” said Senior Vice President Ward Uggerud during an energy forum Tuesday evening at Legacy Hall on the MSCTC, Fergus Falls, campus. “We need new generation, and Big Stone II is our best option.”

Uggerud said he’s unaware of Native American (tribe) opposition to Big Stone II in Otter Tail Power’s service area of Minnesota and the two Dakotas. On the contrary, he said some tribes want to become participants in the project.

However, in a previous energy forum held at MSCTC on March 5, Winona La Duke, representing the White Earth Reservation of northern Minnesota and Minneapolis-based Honor the Earth, and Myrna Thompson of the Sisseton Wahpeton Community (Lake Traverse Reservation), said wind energy is a better option than building a new coal-fired station at Big Stone.

They also expressed concerns about emissions, water usage and health and environmental effects from the proposed Big Stone II coal-fired generation station near Milbank.

Uggerud, however, said that construction of Big Stone II would have positive environmental impacts on Big Stone I.

“There would be less mercury, less sulfur dioxide and less nitrogen oxide from the two plants than from one plant,” he said. “Building power plants is something we do in a collaborative effort.”

Video

OTP speaks during an energy conference held 3/25/08 part 1 of 2 Watch »

Otter Tail is one of five partners in the Big Stone II project. All of the partners are electric suppliers in this area of the Upper Midwest.

Uggerud and fellow speakers Mark Helland, vice president, customer service, and Kim Pederson, manager, market planning, said that wind energy is part of Otter Tail Power’s company’s energy mix. Otter Tail’s alternative sources of energy, which include wind, are expected to increase to 39 percent (280 megawatts) of the company’s energy mix by the year 2020.

The company’s purchased wind resources currently stand at 84 megawatts.

“But the wind doesn’t always blow,” Uggerud said. “Coal-fired generation is more reliable.”

He also said that power lines, an offshoot of the Big Stone II project, would be used to carry wind energy from the Buffalo Ridge of southwestern Minnesota.

New generation resources identified in the company's resource plan also call for 170 megawatts of coal (23 percent), 100 megawatts of demand-side management (14 percent), and 175 megawatts of natural gas (24 percent) by 2020.

The Otter Tail Power representatives addressed regulations and obligations that are behind a utility's decisions about how to provide energy for customers for the future. They specifically provided this background as it relates to the proposed Big Stone II. Energy efficiency and demand-side management also were discussed.

Uggerud said that in 1971 the average Otter Tail Power Company residential customer used an average of 5,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity on an annual basis. That usage, he said, jumped to 9,550 kilowatt-hours annually in 2007.

Video

OTP speaks during an energy conference held 3/25/08 part 2 of 2 Watch »

Helland said that it’s a balancing act managing energy while meeting customer expectations in a service territory that’s roughly the size of the state of Wisconsin.

Pederson said that Otter Tail has been a national leader in demand-side management and conservation. One example, she said, is a program initiated several years ago whereby Otter Tail — in coordination with customers — controls water heaters during peak times of energy usage such as suppertime between 5 and 7 p.m. Another example is load shifting with use of thermal storage.

The energy forums March 5 and Tuesday evening were hosted by students from the MSCTC Sociology Service Learning Class. Student planners included Cortney Spiker, Evansville; Andrew Brue, Fergus Falls; Kathi Abel, Fergus Falls; Baird Miltich, Pelican Rapids; and Rebecca Odegaard, Morris. Their instructor is Sue Wika.