Great River Energy will study proposals for new wind energy
Elk River, Minn. (February 20, 2006) - Great River Energy took another step toward significantly increasing the amount of energy its members receive from renewable resources when it chose several wind energy proposals for in-depth evaluation. Each proposal represents between 6 megawatts (MW) to 120 MW of wind energy, including some Community-Based Energy Development (C-BED) projects. Great River Energy plans to add at least 120 MW of wind energy to its generation mix by the end of 2007.
Great River Energy issued a Renewable Energy Request for Proposal (RFP) last fall with proposals due by mid-December. Thirty-one developers responded with more than 50 proposals. The majority of the proposals were for wind energy projects, but three developers proposed other types of renewable energy including landfill gas, biomass and pipeline compressor heat recovery projects.
“The wind energy proposals were the most competitively priced, and these projects rose to the top,” said Stan Selander, Great River Energy resource development administrator.
The proposed developers include:
In this next phase, the developers are being asked to further address specific issues related to transmission, pricing, operations and equipment, among other things.
Winning bids will be selected by Great River Energy later this spring.
The number of proposed projects that Great River Energy is studying significantly exceeds the amount of resources sought in the RFP. Depending on the outcome of negotiations with these possible developers, Great River Energy anticipates selecting more resources than were requested.
In addition to the wind projects represented on the list, Great River Energy also will enter into negotiations with developers who proposed several pipeline compressor station heat recovery projects. These projects have zero incremental emissions and could potentially delay new baseload resources.
On a related note, Great River Energy expects to issue another RFP for peaking, intermediate and possibly baseload resources by mid-March 2006. This RFP will consist of three phases over a three-month period: The phases are prequalification, proposal submission and Great River Energy’s evaluation of the proposals.
Great River Energy (www.greatriverenergy.com) is a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative providing wholesale electric energy and related services to 28 distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin serving more than 600,000 members, or approximately 1.7 million people. It is the second largest power supplier in the state of Minnesota, and the fourth largest cooperative of its type in the nation.
