By Kennedy Maize
With seed money from Wyoming, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, North Dakota’s multistate generation and transmission cooperative, is pondering a new coal-fired power plant in the Cowboy State. Under consideration is a second unit at the 483-MW Dry Fork unit near Gillette, 93% owned by Basin, with the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency owning 7%.
On Monday (Oct. 27), the Wyoming Energy Authority awarded Basin $4 million in matching funds for a Front-End Engineering Study (FEED) for a second Dry Fork unit. The authority said the study “will deliver a detailed analysis encompassing technology selection, preliminary engineering and design, and an Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACE) class three cost estimate, laying the groundwork for informed decision-making on the proposed expansion.”
Dry Fork was commissioned in 2011, the newest coal-fired power plant in the largest coal producing state in the nation. The nearby Dry Fork surface mine in the Powder River Basin, owned and operated by the non-profit Western Fuels Association, supplies the plant with coal. When Basin built Dry Fork, it also had a second unit in mind.
The last new coal fired power plant commissioned in the U.S. is the 932-MW Sandy Creek Energy Station near Waco, Texas, operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority. The unit went into service in 2013. The plant suffered a major mechanical failure in April after being shut down for maintenance. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says the plant won’t be back in service until 2027.
A key part of Basin’s FEED study will include selecting technology, an oficial told Cowboy State Daily. Basin’s Dana Hager said, “Basin has always really prided ourselves on pioneering new technologies. And so the FEED study is not unusual for us.” Hager said the study would take a year to 16 months to complete, adding, “When Dry Fork Station was originally built, it was designed with the possibility of adding a second unit in the future.”
Started in 1961, Basin Electric is headquartered in Bismarck and owned by 139 rural co-ops with three million members in nine states: Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
At end of 2024, Basin Electric operated 5,217 MW of wholesale electric generating capability and had 8,427 MW of generating capacity within its resource portfolio, according to the co-op. Power plants are located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Iowa. Basin also owns or maintains 2,631 miles of high-voltage transmission. It’s public power members distribute the electricity.
Wyoming was teased about a possible new coal-fired power plant in March, when a state legislator with energy industry ties, Rep. Scott Heiner, claimed he had a solid plan for a new coal plant in the state and would unveil it in April. The plant would feature carbon capture and recovery for use in the oil and gas industry. His story was vague and turned out to be smoke and mirrors as April came and went.
Wyoming hosts 11 coal-fired power plants, with coal providing 60% of the state’s electric generation. Six of the plants are located in Campbell County, which is the Gillette Metropolitan Statistical Area in the geological heart of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which also extends into Montana.
Wind is the next most significant source of Wyoming’s electricity at 23%, followed by natural gas at 13%, with solar, petroleum, and “other” producing the final 4%.
PacifiCorp, the major investor-owned utility in Wyoming, in its 2025 integrated resource plan said it expects in 2026 to shut its final two Naughton Power Plant operating coal-fired units, totaling 448 MW of capacity. The plant is located Kemmerer, in Lincoln County in southwest Wyoming near the Idaho border.
The advanced nuclear plant that Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is developing is sited in Kemmerer near the Naughton plant in order to have access to the existing transmission infrastructure. The Gates company characterizes its Natrium plant as “coal-to-nuclear.”
The Basin deal with Wyoming had local officials beaming. Gov. Mark Gordon said, “This is clear proof that coal is not dead and a reminder that Wyoming’s strength has always come from our ability to innovate without abandoning our values. The FEED study for an additional unit at the Dry Fork Station stands out as especially significant. It represents the first potential expansion of a coal-fired power station in our nation in many years.”
The Trump administration also weighed in from Denver. The aptly-named Cyrus Western, the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator for its Region 8 office, told Cowboy State Daily, “This is the Trump administration and the state of Wyoming planting a flag in the ground and sending the message that we can generate very reliable, very affordable power and protect the environment while doing so.”
Western is a former Wyoming Republican legislator from Sheridan. He played a role in creating the matching fund program that led to the grant to Basin. “I was proud to play a part of it,” he said. “We wanted to take that money and to invest strategically in Wyoming, in our core industries. We wanted to invest in Wyoming and to help create really high quality, reliable and affordable energy, and to create great middle class jobs along the way. I feel that this is just another chapter in that journey.”