Energy & Environment

Goals

2023 Highlights

• Hoot Lake Solar, our 49-MW solar facility in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, became fully operational. It’s Minnesota’s lowest-cost and third-largest operating solar facility. With the completion of Hoot Lake Solar, nearly 40 percent of our owned and contracted energy generation comes from renewable resources.
• We purchased Ashtabula III Wind Energy Center in eastern North Dakota. Owning the facility provides a lower-cost alternative for our customers than maintaining the power purchase agreement. The 39-turbine site adds 62 MW of nameplate capacity to our energy generation mix.
• We began plans and received site permits to upgrade and refurbish wind turbines at our Ashtabula, Ashtabula III, Langdon, and Luverne Wind Energy Centers in 2024 and 2025. Once complete, we expect this wind repowering to provide approximately 164 GWH of additional energy—the equivalent of a new 40-MW facility.
• We began public outreach and planning for two new 345-kV transmission lines, which are part of MISO’s Long‑Range Transmission Planning Tranche 1 projects. We’re leading development and construction on an approximately 95-mile transmission line between Jamestown and Ellendale, North Dakota, and an approximately 100‑mile transmission line between Big Stone City, South Dakota, and Alexandria, Minnesota. We’re also working with our co-owners of the CapX2020 Fargo to Twin Cities 345-kV transmission line to add a second circuit to the existing double-circuit capable structures from Alexandria to the Big Oaks substation near Monticello, Minnesota.
• On May 30, 2024, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) approved our 15-year resource plan. The MPUC decision includes the addition of new renewable resources to meet the energy needs of our Minnesota customers, limits Minnesota’s share of output of Coyote Station to emergency situations, recognizes our proposal to add on-site liquified natural gas at Astoria Station is reasonable and prudent, and offers guidance on future resource planning analysis in adding new generation resources that best meet the needs of our customers.

Resource planning

In September 2021 we submitted our initial IRP filing, but since then saw significant changes in the energy industry, including the FERC’s approval of MISO’s new seasonal resource adequacy construct, MISO’s proposal to significantly increase winter and spring planning reserve margins, and enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act—which together drove the need to update our IRP modeling.

On May 30, 2024, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved our resource plan containing many elements of the settlement between our company and other parties filed April 2, 2024, in our 2022-2036 Integrated Resource Plan docket.

When we do our long-range resource planning, there are three things we keep in mind. The first one is reliability. We want to make sure the lights stay on. Not just some of the time, but all the time. The second one is keeping rates low. And third, we want to make sure we’re being good stewards of the environment.
Nate Jensen, Resource Planning Manager

Learn more about our resource planning

Transmission and distribution

Generating energy is the first step in providing electricity to our customers. The second step is safely, efficiently, and reliably delivering that electricity to our customers via our wholly or jointly owned 6,352 miles of transmission lines and 7,877 miles of distribution lines.

In July 2022 the MISO Board of Directors approved $10.3 billion in a portfolio of 18 new transmission projects focused on its Midwest Subregion, which includes our service area. These projects—including the proposed Jamestown to Ellendale, Big Stone South to Alexandria, and Alexandria to Big Oaks transmission lines—are the first of four portfolios of future transmission projects in MISO’s Long-Range Transmission Planning (LRTP) process.

In addition to these 345-kV transmission projects, we’re working on several local 230-kV and 115-kV transmission projects to help alleviate regional transmission congestion and ensure reliability.

Learn more about our transmission projects

Inspecting and maintaining the infrastructure we rely on to transmit and deliver electricity is as critical as performing maintenance on a vehicle. Making sure we’re repairing or replacing infrastructure ahead of potential breakdowns or failure starts with understanding the overall health of our existing assets and the process to replace those assets.

In 2022 we doubled our traditional annual capital spend in the replacement of aging transmission and distribution assets. In 2023 we maintained this increased level of capital spending.

Environmental responsibility

We’re reducing our environmental impact across operations. As we work toward our carbon emission reductions and renewable energy goals, we’re also reducing other greenhouse gas emissions and preserving or restoring the areas where we operate.

The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources designated Hoot Lake Solar as Habitat Friendly Solar, combining support for pollinators, songbirds, and other species while also providing water management and soil health benefits. We minimized impact to the environment by planting native grasses to provide pollinator-friendly and native habitats for wildlife cover, food, and nesting areas. We also included revegetation, especially along the perimeter fence, with trees, native grasses, and flowering plant species.

You can only call a project habitat friendly if a site adheres to a set of standards. You need to score a minimum of 70 to claim that habitat-friendly solar standard. Where Hoot Lake Solar ended up was a score of 100. We exceeded a score of 85, which represents the gold standard for providing exceptional habitat.
Paul Vukonich, Environmental Compliance Manager

In January 2023 the Minnesota Erosion Control Association awarded our Hoot Lake Solar project its Environmental Excellence award. We earned this award based on several factors, including innovation, partnership, water quality and quantity protection, and project success

Learn more about Hoot Lake Solar

Energy efficiency and load management

Our responsibility for efficient energy use doesn’t stop at generation. To help our customers conserve energy and manage their electric bills, we educate them on efficient new technologies, provide rate information to help them calculate operating costs associated with energy use, and encourage participation in energy efficiency and load management programs.

In 2023 Minnesota customers saved 61,444 MWH of energy and South Dakota customers saved 6,650 MWH through our energy conservation programs.

Learn more about ways to save

Electric technologies and options

Our partnerships to create more efficient spaces with new electric technologies and options continue.

With approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, in 2023 we finished construction on 6 of 11 direct-current fast-charging sites we’re helping construct throughout Minnesota. We expect to finish the remaining charging sites in 2024. These sites range in size from 50 kW to 80 kW and can add up to 100 miles of driving range in 12 minutes to 40 minutes of charging.

We worked with four K-12 schools and one college to gain approvals for Minnesota Solar for Schools program funding. These five schools will each construct 40-kW solar arrays on their campuses. They’ll use the energy produced from the solar arrays to help offset their energy consumption, saving the schools money on their electric bills and helping them achieve their sustainability goals.

Our TailWinds program offers interested customers the ability to supplement their energy mix with additional wind energy. Customers can buy wind-generated electricity in 100-kWh blocks for a small additional charge each month. This helps offset the cost of adding wind power to our resource mix.

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