Coal Creek Station produced more electricity than all the wind on MISO for 65 straight hours in 2020

We are constantly told that the wind is always blowing somewhere, but did you know that the Coal Creek Station, a 1,150-megawatt (MW) power plant located in central North Dakota, produced more electricity than all of the wind turbines on the entire Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator (MISO) combined for 65 hours straight in 2020?

This should never happen because there was 22,040 MW of installed wind capacity in MISO in January 2020, which means the Coal Creek Station produced more electricity despite the fact that there was nineteen times more wind capacity on the regional grid.

These statistics should be eye-opening for decision-makers at the capitol. MISO already has a 1,200 MW shortage of reliable power plants, and this shortage would have been even worse if Rainbow Energy had not purchased the Coal Creek Station from Great River Energy earlier this year.

Lawmakers must understand that reliability and affordability must take top priority for our energy decisions.