Climate change
Otter Tail Power Company's carbon reduction efforts
We remain committed to responsibly addressing the issue of climate change. As outlined below, we have taken—and will continue to take—measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Supply efficiency and reliability
- Between 1990 and 2009, we decreased our CO2 intensity (lbs. of CO2 / MWh generated) nearly 23 percent.
- The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved our last integrated resource plan (IRP) in January 2009. We filed a new IRP on June 25, 2010. In developing our IRP, we take a look at the electric generation resources available to us and select our preferred plan based on a balance of reliability, affordability, and environmental responsibility. The Commission is scheduled to decide in 2011 whether to approve our plan or a modified plan.
Conservation
- Since 1992 we have helped our customers conserve more than 1.2 million cumulative megawatt-hours of electricity and 225 megawatts of demand. That's roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity that 110,000 average homes would have used in a year.
- We continue to educate customers about energy efficiency and demand-side management and to work with regulators to develop new programs and measurements.
Renewable energy
- Since 2002 our customers have been able to purchase 100 percent of their electricity from wind generation through our TailWinds program.
- Our latest approved resource plan calls for up to 280 megawatts of new wind generation to be added between 2007 and 2020. In the last three years we've added 138 megawatts of owned generation and we purchase at least another 45 megawatts.
- Otter Tail Power Company owns 40.5 megawatts of wind generation at Langdon Wind Energy Center in northeastern North Dakota. We also purchase 19.5 megawatts of output from Langdon.
- We own 48 megawatts of wind generation from Ashtabula Wind Energy Center in east-central North Dakota.
- We own nearly 50 megawatts of wind generation at the Luverne Wind Farm, near the Ashtabula Wind Energy Center. It was completed in 2009.
- We support Minnesota's law requiring 25 percent renewable energy by 2025, especially with its customer protection provisions.
- We support North Dakota's and South Dakota's 10 percent renewable energy objective.
Research and development
- We will continue to participate as a member of EPA's SF6 (sulfur hexafluoride) Emission Reduction Partnership for Electric Power Systems program. The partnership proactively is targeting a reduction in emissions of SF6, a potent greenhouse gas. SF6 has a global-warming potential 23,900 times that of CO2.
- We participate in carbon sequestration research through the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership through the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environment Research Center. The PCOR Partnership is a collaborative effort of more than 75 public and private sector stakeholders working toward a better understanding of the technical and economic feasibility of capturing and storing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources in the central interior of North America.
Transmission siting
- Long-term demand for electricity is rising across the country and in our service area. We invest in transmission upgrades and new construction to meet that growing demand and to maintain our electrical system's reliability.
- We are committed to the prudent use of renewable resources. Due to its inherent intermittent characteristics, however, wind power poses new challenges to utilities' daily dispatch operations. To help meet these challenges our company conducts and participates in rigorous local and regional transmission planning studies.
