Wygen Station

Wygen Station is a coal-fired power station owned and operated by Black Hills Corporation near Gillette, Wyoming. The facility sits immediately to the southwest of PacifiCorp's Wyodak Power Plant, and immediately to the northwest of Black Hills Corporation's Neil Simpson Power Plants.

Citizen Activism
In January 2010, Montana-Dakota Utilities proposed a 25% overall rate hike due to the utility's investment in the plant, Wygen Unit 3, after an initial request of 30%. Citizens, particularly the Powder River Basin Resource Council, opposed the hike, as seen in this video.

In March 2010, MDU announced it had reached a settlement for an increase of 16 percent. The Wyoming Public Service Commission has until June 14 to rule on the settlement. In the price settlement, the parties agreed to stipulations including a lower return on equity of 10.9 percent, special provisions for irrigation customers, and a phased-in increase over three years "to mitigate the rate shock effect on customers," according to the agreement.

Black Hills Power has requested an 11.5 percent return on equity.

Plant Data

 * Owner/Parent Company: Black Hills Corporation
 * Plant Nameplate Capacity: 88 MW (Megawatts)
 * Units and In-Service Dates: 88 MW (2003)
 * Location: 48 Wyodak Rd., Gilette, WY 82716
 * GPS Coordinates: 44.286754, -105.387451
 * Electricity Production: 709,117 MWh (2005)
 * Coal Consumption:
 * Coal Source:
 * Number of Employees:

Emissions Data

 * CO2 Emissions: 912,154 tons (2006)
 * SO2 Emissions:
 * SO2 Emissions per MWh:
 * NOx Emissions:
 * Mercury Emissions:

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Wygen Unit 2
 * Wygen Unit 3
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Wyoming and coal
 * Black Hills Corporation
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming