Utility Proposes Second Minnesota Plant

ROSEMOUNT, Minnesota -- - Call it Power City.

Great River Energy officials said the utility wants to build a $400 million natural gas plant in Rosemount along County Road 42 east of U.S. 52. It's the second major plant proposed for Rosemount.

Xcel Energy is proposing a 550-megawatt coal-fired plant a few miles away.

The Great River Energy plant would generate up to 600 megawatts of power. If both proposed plants are built, Rosemount would become the state's second-largest provider of electricity. The two proposed plants would generate enough power for more than one million homes, turning northeastern Rosemount into a kind of energy park.

Why Rosemount?

"It is just a prime spot for power plants," said Kandace Olsen, spokeswoman for Great River, which supplies power to rural cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She and county officials said that for a city in the metro area, Rosemount has a great deal of open space, correct zoning and access to natural gas lines, rivers, highways and rail lines.

Olsen said a high-power line already crosses the 300-acre site and only slight modifications would be needed to tap into it.

But the completion of each power plant depends on legislative actions.

Great River officials have said they need certain tax exemptions, common for such plants, from the Legislature, according to Barry Schade, environmental management director for Dakota County.

Xcel's coal-fired plant would be built to make up for power lost if the Legislature forces the Prairie Island nuclear plant to close early.

Prairie Island is running out of space for its spent fuel rods, and if the Legislature doesn't allow for more expansion of storage capacity, the plant will have to be shut down in 2007. This week, Xcel and the Prairie Island Tribal Council reached a tentative deal to gain more storage capacity at the plant, but many hurdles remain.

The new plant would make up some of the difference if a deal can't be reached.

Mary Sandok, spokeswoman for Xcel, said that if the Legislature allows the expansion and permits the plan to operate for its licensed lifetime -- until 2013 and 2014 for the two reactors -- then the new coal-fired plant will be canceled.

Xcel Energy accepted a bid from LS Power Development of New Brunswick, N.J., to build the plant. It isn't known exactly where the plant would be built, but officials have said they are seeking a 200-acre site southeast of the Flint Hills refinery.

Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste was bullish on the plants. "We need power with growth south of the river," he said.

Together, Rosemount's proposed plants would produce more power than the 1,060-megawatt Prairie Island plant. In Minnesota, only the 2,450-megawatt Sherco Plant in Becker would be bigger than the Rosemount plants combined.

Droste said that, in addition to a several-year surge in construction employment, the Xcel plant would add 100 jobs in Rosemount, and the Great River plant, about 30.

Droste said that the location was appropriate. "It's already in an industrial area," he said. It was on slightly depressed ground, making the plants less visible from distances, Droste said.

The mayor only had one worry -- the possibility of additional, long trains in the area, carrying coal for the Xcel plant.

Bob Brooks, a vice president of LS Power Development, wouldn't give specifics about its plans for the plant. He said LS built and operated a power plant in Cottage Grove in 1997 and later sold it.

That's one of the roughly seven plants LS has developed and operated in the country.

Great River's plant would be its first in the Twin Cities area, but Olsen said the company provides power to 60 percent of Minnesota, geographically speaking.