Below is a summary of the Reliability Panel at the 2024 Basin Electric Annual Meeting.
Moderator:
- Gavin McCollam, senior vice president and chief operating office at Basin Electric
Panelists:
- Erin Dukart, director of Environmental Services at Basin Electric
- Jeremy Severson, vice president of Transmission at Basin Electric
- Trinity Turnbow, vice president and operations manager at Dakota Gas
- Troy Tweeten, senior vice president of Generation; chief operation officer, Dakota Coal Company and Montana Limestone Company
- Val Weigel, vice president of Energy Markets at Basin Electric
The Reliability panel began with Gavin McCollam discussing the ever-growing need for reliable electricity. “Whether it’s the national news, regional transmission organizations, electric reliability councils, or politicians – the concern is the same – and the concern is valid,” he said. “We now need to maximize reliability. We haven’t forgotten about efficiency and viability, mind you, but – as we stand here today – reliability is King.”
McCollam then transitioned into the panel discussion by introducing the five panelists on stage (Erin Dukart, Troy Tweeten, Trinity Turnbow, Val Weigel, and Jeremy Severson) and highlighted how their departments represent over 1,500 men and women who work hard every day to keep generation, transmission, and subsidiary facilities running as reliable as possible.
Troy Tweeten was asked how the natural gas and coal fleets are measuring up to meet the three-part reliability goal. “Year-to-date, the gas fleet is not making this goal, but the coal fleet is currently on target to make the goal,” he said. Tweeten also discussed how spare parts are being ordered to ensure sufficient back-up equipment is available in the event of equipment failures, thus helping to maintain reliability.
Trinity Turnbow spoke about the significance of the recent “black-plant outage” at Dakota Gas this year. This is the third such outage in the history of Dakota Gas. “A black plant outage is a scheduled turnaround when basically every system at Dakota Gas is down at the same time,” he said. “This provides an opportune time to repair systems.” Turnbow mentioned the team completed over 4,400 work tasks. Turnbow also highlighted the record-breaking year for DGC’s fertilizer products. “In April of this year, the ammonia plant set a daily production record, beating the one that was set previously in 2021,” he said.
Erin Dukart provided the audience with an update on the latest environmental regulations Basin Electric has encountered since the last annual meeting. She also touched on how the latest environmental regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and how they threaten reliability. “The increased difficulty in building new facilities and the constant attack on existing facilities continues to threaten reliability,” she said.
Val Weigel touched on the efforts the Energy Markets team makes to mitigate the adverse market exposures during winter events. She also discussed how the Energy Market and Generation teams work together day-in and day-out to maximize availability of all units. “The marketing team works with the facilities on a daily basis to coordinate how we can most optimally offer the generation into the market,” Weigel said. “Often we work together to find solutions to optimize revenue and lower cost and operational risk.”
Jeremy Severson talked about how high voltage transmission is currently meeting the three-part reliability goal, in which a Forced Outage Rate (FOR) of .25 or less must be met. “I’m proud to say that our transmission system has a FOR of .06 for the year,” he said. Severson also discussed specific procedures and activities the Transmission team has in place to make sure systems are ready for winter.
McCollam wrapped up the panel discussion by reiterating the importance the 1,500 men and women play in keeping our member-owner’s assets running.
