St. Paul, Minn. — On Thursday, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (Commission) approved Great River Energy’s (GRE) proposed modifications to the Cambridge Station facility located in Isanti County, Minnesota.

Currently, the peaking plant runs on natural gas, but with this approval it will be retrofitted to run on fuel oil as well. Great River Energy anticipates the plant will run on diesel for 24 hours a year on average. If the plant runs longer than 24 hours in a year on fuel oil, Great River Energy must report why it was necessary to the Commission.

“This project is essential to ensure Minnesotans have reliable and more affordable power during extreme weather events,” said Commissioner Valerie Means. “We’ve seen vulnerabilities in our natural gas supply when there are demand spikes which has led to large bills for consumers. This additional fuel option will help hedge against those price spikes.”

The Commission read public comments and heard from stakeholders including the Department of Commerce, labor organizations and member-owner utilities like Lake Country Power and East Central Energy on a variety of issues, such as:

• The environmental assessment worksheet concluded that the project will not have significant impacts on the human or natural environment and contained the necessary information and that the project should be treated as a minor alteration.
• The size of the facility will remain the same, therefore no additional permitting is required.
• Energy, reliability, and affordability assurances.
• A cap on allowed operating hours and reporting to help identify patterns in the facility's use.

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