40 years and counting: celebrating decades of service

Forty years ago, the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers played the longest game in Major League Baseball history, Ghostbusters hit theaters, and Prince’s song Purple Rain flooded the world.

In our neck of the woods, something exciting was also happening. On Aug. 1, 1984, Unit 1 at Antelope Valley Station began commercial operation, and on July 28, 1984, natural gas made synthetically from lignite began flowing from Dakota Gasification Company’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant into the nation’s interstate pipeline system.

In July 1978, construction began on Antelope Valley Station near the gasification project site in Beulah, North Dakota. The power plant consists of two units, each rated at 450 megawatts, the first of which began commercial operation in 1984 and the second in 1985. Antelope Valley Station is part of an energy complex that includes the Great Plains Synfuels Plant and the Freedom Mine. A majority of Antelope Valley Station’s fuel supply is provided by the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in the form of lignite fines – particles of coal too small for use in the gasification process.

Built in the 1980s, the Synfuels Plant was America’s first commercial-scale coal gasification plant and at one time was the largest construction project in North America. Located near Beulah, North Dakota, the plant was built as an alternative source of energy for the United States, which had a goal of moving away from dependence on foreign supplies of energy. In this 40-year journey, the plant has evolved from three to 13 products. Fuels and chemical products are sold worldwide for many different applications. Agricultural fertilizers have become the largest revenue source. Most recently, the plant has developed the largest geologic sequestration project in the world.

“It’s amazing to think that 40 years have passed since Dakota Gas and Antelope Valley Station went into operation,” Troy Tweeten, Basin Electric senior vice president of Generation, says. “As we celebrate this anniversary milestone, we stop to acknowledge the commitment made to provide clean, efficient, and affordable energy and products to rural America. The employees have done a great job maintaining and operating these two facilities to keep them reliable for the past 40 years, and we look forward to these facilities providing many more years of service to the communities we serve.”

Nineteen eighty-four was a year of amazing firsts, and great things continue to happen as Basin Electric works hard to provide reliable and affordable electricity to the communities it serves throughout rural America.