About us

Corporate Profile

  • A not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative incorporated in 1961 to provide supplemental power to a consortium of rural electric cooperatives
  • Diversified energy portfolio of dispatchable and non-dispatchable resources. Dispatchable resources have a readily available fuel supply to power their generation, whereas non-dispatchable resources rely on intermittent, renewable fuel and produce electricity when weather conditions are right.
  • Consumer owned by 140 member cooperative systems
  • Serves 3 million electric consumers
  • Members' service territories comprise nearly 500,000 square miles in nine states
  • At end of year 2023, Basin Electric operated 5,217 megawatts (MW) of wholesale electric generating capability and had 8,112 MW of generating capacity within its resource portfolio
  • Operates 12 maintenance shop output locations in 4 states
  • Owns 2,526 miles and maintains 2,565 miles of high-voltage transmission
  • Owns and/or maintains substation equipment in 93 locations and has equipment ownership in 20 additional locations
  • Owns and maintains telecommunications equipment at 224 telecommunication sites

Data updated May 2024.

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Organization

Basin Electric’s core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our member rural electric systems, which are located in nine states.

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Members

At Basin Electric, our focus is the person at the end of the line. Our member-owners are the reason we exist. That's the co-op difference.
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Career Center

Basin Electric employs over 1,800 people at facilities in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. 
Lineworkers on transmission structure

Transmission

Basin Electric is one of the few utilities that supply electricity on both sides of the national electric system separation.

worker at computer screens

Generation

Using a mix of dispatchable and non-dispatchable generation, you can be sure we've got the power for our members.

RESOURCE PROFILE

Basin Electric's core business is generating and transmitting wholesale bulk electric power to customers, primarily to our 140 member rural electric systems, which are located in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Our largest subsidiary, the for-profit Dakota Gasification Company, owns and operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant near Beulah, North Dakota, which gasifies lignite coal and captures some of the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and sends them to produce several value-added products.

Basin Electric owned 4,274 megawatts (MW) and operated 5,217 MW of electric generating capacity by end of year 2023, of which 981 MW is for participants of the Missouri Basin Power Project (MBPP), and 80 MW is jointly owned by Basin Electric and its Class A member, Corn Belt Power Cooperative, Humboldt, Iowa. Our electric generation facilities are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Iowa. 

Basin Electric's total winter season generating capacity portfolio by the winter 2023/2024 season was 8,112 MW. Of that, Basin Electric has purchased a total of 3,837 MW of electric generating capacity, including 2,153 total MW from renewable resources of which 2,108 MW are from wind turbines, and 45 MW are waste heat energy (known as recovered energy generation - REG).

Data updated May 2024.