Heat Recovery Project

Demonstrating the Touchstone Energy value of innovation, Basin Electric Power Cooperative along with the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives of the region have developed a series of power plants in the Dakotas that are "fueled" by hot exhaust. Completed in October 2006, the four plants are located near St. Anthony, ND and Aberdeen, Clark and Estelline, SD. Each site has a base-load capacity of about 5.5 megawatts, for a total of about 22 MW for all four sites. The heat recovery plants are owned and operated by Ormat Technologies of Reno, NV. Basic Electric purchases the output from the plants.

Ron Rebenitsch, Basin Electric's manager of member marketing, said the environmentally friendly project involves using the hot exhaust gases from existing compressor stations located along the Northern Border Pipeline to generate electricity. The compressors are driven by natural gas fueled turbines. The plants have minimal environmental impact, with the electric generation considered to have virtually zero emissions.

"The heat in the compressor exhaust is recovered using heat exchangers. The recovered heat is then used to vaporize a fluid to drive a trubine/generator set," Rebenitsch said. "The exhaust temperature is more than 900° F." This is the first use of this technology on a gas pipeline compressor station in the U.S.

East River Electric constructed three substations and 13 miles of transmission lines to deliver the electricity from the three South Dakota units to the electric grid.