Reported by Ann Rascalli

Bucking the trend in several other states, such as neighboring Colorado where new legislation is curtailing coal-fired plants, Wyoming’s latest facility is now online near Gillette. WyGen III is delivering electricity to approximately 70,000 residents in western South Dakota and parts of Wyoming and Montana. Black Hills Power Corp. built the facility for $247 million to meet growing electricity demand in the region. Company Vice President Mark Lux said the project was completed in 24 months ahead of schedule and under budget.

To cover the 100-megawatt plant’s price tag, the bill for a typical residential customer in Wyoming is expected to rise by about 64 cents a day or $230 annually.

The new plant is one of six coal-fired power stations at the company’s WyoDak Energy Complex north of Gillette that produce a combined 600 megawatts of electricity.

Price was the key factor for Black Hills when the energy company was planning WyGen III in 2007. Wind power and natural gas were considered as alternatives, but according to Lux, coal came in as the lowest-cost option.

Given the current emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by some in the industry and policymakers, it is somewhat surprising to learn Black Hills has no immediate plans for capturing CO2 emissions, such as utilizing some type of carbon sequestration technology. The cost of doing so, no doubt, influenced this decision. However, Lux did say there is room to retrofit the plant for carbon capture technology if needed in the future.

While critical of the project, saying it will release an estimated 2.5 million tons of CO2 annually, environmental groups never filed a formal challenge to the plant’s air permit.

Wyoming continues to produce more coal than any other state with at least four other plant proposals still in the works, including  Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s 385-megawatt Dry Fork Station also in the Gillette area. The facility cleared a major hurdle early last month when the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the project’s air quality permit, despite challenges from the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Sierra Club.