Western joins team to launch North Dakota’s
largest wind farm
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Electrician Wayne Stevens (left)
helps Forman Lineman Bob Miller (crane operator) maneuver
breakers into place at the Edgeley Substation. Both men
worked on Western¹s Bismarck crew, which, along with
the Jamestown, N.D., crew, designed and installed the breaker
addition that connected the Edgeley Wind Farm to the grid.
(Photo courtesy of North Dakota maintenance Manager Brian
Morris)
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At the risk of sounding like a long-winded
Oscar winner, Basin
Electric Power Cooperative’s Member Marketing Manager
Ron Rebenitsch was being
completely sincere when he ran down a list of Western employees
who helped to make the 40-MW Edgeley wind farm a reality.
Western designed and installed the breaker
addition that connected the turbines to the grid. But more than
that, “Western’s employees did a thorough and professional
job of supporting this project from the beginning,” Rebenitsch
said. “Without their help, I doubt we could have got it
off the ground.”
Cooperation brings project
in on short notice
Basin sought Western’s assistance while still in negotiations
with FPL Energy
to build and operate the North Dakota Wind Energy Center. That
the wind farm came online only 13 months after Basin signed
the contract was a tribute to the cooperative efforts of Basin,
Western and Basin member Central
Power Electric Cooperative.
The Upper Great Plains staff earned Basin's thanks
for meeting a tight construction schedule, helping to secure
environmental permits and resolving complex interconnection
issues. “The short notice was the biggest challenge,”
acknowledged North Dakota Maintenance Manager Brian
Morris, adding his praise to the crews that kept the job
moving. "Without Electrician Foreman Jim Koehn, Field Engineer
Tim Gerhart and the Bismarck and Jamestown crews, the project
would have gotten behind. CSO Engineering did an outstanding
job of design in a short time frame.”
Western's main contribution to the project was
modifying and expanding its Edgeley Substation to handle the
new line bay from the wind farm. The modifications included
building a main and transfer bus for reliability, replacing
and installing three new breakers and several switches, adding
new control boards and relays and modifying the remote terminal
unit. Also, Western bought additional property for the substation
expansion and modified the approach structures into the substation.
Central Power built a 10-mile transmission line
from the Edgeley Substation to the breaker addition to the wind
farm through FPL Energy's Pomona wind collector substation.
Western also assisted with building remote terminal units and
new relays at Pomona.
Partnerships key to bringing down cost
of wind power
The Edgeley wind farm began generating clean energy in September
2003, with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by North
Dakota Governor John Hoeven in October.
Basin is buying 100 percent of the wind
farm’s output from FPL Energy and integrating it into
its portfolio to sell as green tags, rather than as a green
power option. The utility’s portfolio includes generation
from its 2.6-MW Prairie Winds project near Minot, another development
near Hyde City, S.D., and small turbines owned by the Rosebud
Sioux tribe and the Pipestone School District. Western is
working with Basin and other consumer-owned utilities to develop
a certification standard and marketing network for green tags
generated by such projects.
Western will continue to work with Basin
and its member co-ops to make renewable wind energy more available
and affordable in both North and South Dakota. FPL Energy built
the Hyde City wind farm for Basin, using East
River Electric Power Cooperative as the delivery point.
Western also supplied the relay setting and interconnection
for that project.
For cooperatives that want to follow Basin’s
lead and add more wind power to their mix, Rebenitsch offers
a few suggestions. “The first rule is to get some experience
with small projects,” he recommended. “By building
the Prairie Winds developments at Minot and Chamberlain, we
learned enough to try something on a larger scale.”
Choosing a reliable, experienced developer
like FPL Energy helps to ensure that a co-op gets the best service
and price. Whenever possible, Rebenitsch added, partnering with
other projects helps to improve the financial picture. “You
need that economy of scale to get the kWh cost down,”
he explained.
And, of course, a good team pulls it all
together. “There was never a moment during the process
that I felt we were getting anything less than the best from
Western,” Rebenitsch said in an e-mail thanking the UGP
crew. “We congratulate you on the fine job you accomplished
in just a few months.”
The experience was good for Western’s
UGP staff, too. They brought their dedication to excellence
to the project and came away with experience that will help
Basin and other customers with future renewable energy projects.
