Prairie Public Broadcasting

PSC commissioners concerned about power plant siting BISMARCK, ND (Prairie Public) - Great River Energy says the coal-fired power plant it plants to build at Spiritwood will be 99-megawatts.

It's part of an energy complex, which includes an ethanol plant.

Great River had originally planned a 49 megawatt plant there.

Under state law, a power facility -- whether it be coal-fired, wind or other fuels -- has to undergo a full siting review by the state Public Service Commission if it is 100-megawatts or larger. And Commission president Susan Wefald says she's concerned about companies that try to avoid that process by lowering their proposals by a single megawatt.

"The siting process offers the public a wonderful opportunity to be well-informed about a company's plans, to have a chance to review those plans," said Wefald. "Yes, there needs to be public hearings, Yes, there needs to be public involvement. But when a company chooses to construct a project that is one megawatt underneath that in order to avoid the siting process, I think there's reason for concern."

Commissioner Kevin Cramer says he doesn't share Wefald's concerns.

"I'm encoraged by the fact that, since the threshold has been raised to 100, there's now a 99 megawatt plant being built instead of a 49-megawatt plant, which probably would have been the case had the threshold been 50."

But Cramer says he does think the state law needs to be tweaked. He says the law makes no difference what kind of power facility would be built -- and he says there are different issues between a coal-fired plant and a wind farm. © Copyright 2013, Prairie Public