On May 19th, our class visited the Wilton Wind Energy Center outside of Wilton, ND as our final stop of the day. The Wilton Wind Energy Center and adjacent Baldwin Wind Energy Center provide more than 200 megawatts of power to the Basin Electric system.

On Wednesday, May 18th, our Energy Transition in Rural America class visited the headquarters of Mountrail-Williams Electric Co-op (MWEC) in Williston, ND. During the visit, we were fortunate to have a lunch discussion with MWEC’s General Manager, Dale Haugen. After lunch, Mr. Haugen gave our group a presentation introducing MWEC’s recent rapid growth. Then, we followed Mr. Haugen walking through MWEC’s headquarters to have a real taste of operating an electric utility—including the opportunity for four of us to strap in and ride up a bucket truck!

What could a future home look like? The Connected Home Research Project, a partnership between East River Electric Power Co-op, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, and the Dakota State University (DSU), aims to answer this question.

The fifth and last destination for day 1 of our ‘Energy Transition’ trip ended in Brookings, South Dakota, where our class visited East River electric cooperative for dinner and a presentation.

Sioux Valley Energy was our fourth of five stops on Monday. They are a distribution co-op with 28,000 members in eastern South Dakota and southwestern Minnesota. At Sioux Valley, we learned about their beneficial electrification programs and got to reflect on test rides in different electric vehicle models.

On Monday, May 16th, our Energy Transition in Rural America class made our second stop on our week-long field experience at Deer Creek Station. Deer Creek is located near Brookings, South Dakota and provides enough electricity to power over 200,000 homes. It is owned by Basin Electric, a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative serving its members throughout 9 states.

The first stop on our weeklong May Trip was at Renville-Sibley Co-op Power. In addition to touring the facilities, the class listened to a presentation from Jake Rieke on RS Fiber Co-op.