“Those were not windy days. The 29th, the wind started blowing again,” said Lancaster, explaining the facility was taken offline when market prices dropped. It returned to production twice for one-day stretches.

“It’s been off ever since,” Lancaster said. “We felt like we were economically forced into this. We need to do what’s in the best interest of our members, so we’re not operating the plant at a time when we’re not even getting paid for the coal we’re burning …. We’re really affected by whether the wind blows.”

Even GRE’s larger Coal Creek Station, which sends power to Minnesota via a direct current transmission line, has been affected to some extent, reducing its load and running lower than capacity.

“There’s a lot of natural gas in Minnesota,” Lancaster said. “That’s when we’re noticing the effect of low natural gas prices. On days when it’s not windy, the prices are not getting up to what they used to be …. Coal Creek is less affected by North Dakota wind and more affected by Minnesota natural gas.”

Excess power

Basin recently joined the regional transmission organization Southwest Power Pool as a way to buy and sell excess power. At 48 percent, this year set records for wind generation as a percentage of load in SPP.