Added capacity needed to meet growing demand
Conservative estimates (pdf) by the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool (MAPP) indicate that electricity consumption in the MAPP region will increase by 15% during the next decade.
Resource Data International estimates that meeting increased consumption will require adding more than 9,300 megawatts of generation capacity in the MAPP region by 2012. For many years, MAPP has been one of the nation's most reliable systems. According to RDI, however, as of mid-2001, it had less that 2,700 megawatts of new generation scheduled to come online within the next several years.
That's 6,600 megawatts less than the region will require.
Because it takes four to six years to plan, site, and build a baseload generating plant, we must act soon to ensure that our area continues to enjoy the benefits of reliable energy.
The solution: Big Stone II
To meet this increasing demand, five electric utilities have proposed building a 500-580-megawatt, coal-fired electric generation plant. The new facility would be built next to the existing 450-megawatt Big Stone Plant, located near Big Stone City, South Dakota.Big Stone II would come online in mid-2013 and help meet our regional customers' increasing energy needs in a low-cost, environmentally responsible manner. With the addition of Big Stone II, the generating capacity of the power station will more than double. Yet, by utilizing new technologies in environmental protection equipment, emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury from the two plants will be as clean, or cleaner than they are now with a single plant. The new plant will emit 20% less CO2 than existing coal-fired power plants in the region.
The plant's dispatchable, baseload power will increase reliability in the region, as well as add diversity and reduce single-outage risks for the participants. An associated project, the Big Stone Transmission Project, calls for upgrading or adding to the transmission grid in order to deliver the power generated by the proposed plant.
