Governor to dedicate Deer Creek

Deer Creek Station will be open for public tours this Thursday, Aug. 16. From Elkton, take 486th Avenue, and from White, go down County Road 25 to 207th Street.

• Ceremony, public tours Thursday

ELKTON – Gov. Dennis Daugaard heads the list of dignitaries scheduled to appear Thursday, Aug. 16, at the dedication ceremony for Basin Electric’s Deer Creek Station generating plant near Elkton.

The ceremony is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. at the plant site, to be followed by a luncheon and tours of the $405-million facility.

Joining Daugaard on the dais will be Deanna Santema, chair of the Brookings County Commission, and Andrew M. Serri, general manager of Basin Electric.

Also on hand for the ceremony will be Kermit Pearson, a Basin director; Jeff Nelson, general manager of East River Electric Power Cooperative; Henning Hanson, a Sioux Valley Energy director; and Gavin McCollam, Deer Creek Station project manager.

Staffers representing the three members of the South Dakota Congressional delegation will be at the ribbon cutting as well.

The dedication and tours are open to the public.

Deer Creek’s owner, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, generates and transmits wholesale bulk electric power, primarily to its 134 member rural electric systems in nine Midwestern states. Basin itself is headquartered in Bismarck, N.D.

Deer Creek began commercial operation Aug. 1. It is a 300-megawatt, natural gas combined-cycle power plant featuring two turbine-generator sets: one turbine fired by natural gas, the other driven by steam.

The gas turbine was first fired in mid-April of this year, and the steam turbine began operation in late May.

Construction of the power plant began in July 2010, and hundreds of construction workers, pipefitters and plumbing and electrical specialists spent time at the Deer Creek site – about 350 at peak construction last summer. Deer Creek will require a permanent, full-time crew of 28-30 employees.

Deer Creek Station will help Basin Electric meet growing member load requirements. It serves as an intermediate power supply designed to cycle with demand; on average, it will operate 12-16 hours per day, five days a week.

Deer Creek Station is located between White and Elkton in rural Brookings County; its rural address is
20615 484th Ave.,
Elkton. (See the accompanying map for plant directions.)