Still Fired Up
black hills company, gillete campbell county,
New technologies, a push toward more eco-friendly operations and a continuing thirst for power have combined to keep the energy industry sector robust in Wyoming.
And that’s good news for Gillette and Campbell County, which have long been centers of activity for many nationally and internationally known companies.
Coal and gas continue to dominate the local landscape, and as new methods of extraction come online, paired with revamped and fresh facilities, the future is very bright. That optimism is evidenced by the energy projects under way throughout the area. Black Hills Corp.’s new WyGen III plant is a 100-megawatt, $225 million coal-fired plant, of which the city of Gillette may be part owner. White Energy Coal North America Inc. has an agreement with Buckskin Mining Co. to develop a coal-upgrading facility in the Powder River Basin. The Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s new coal-based, 385-megawatt power plant, Dry Fork Station, is nearing completion.
For Black Hills, which has been in the area for more than a century in one capacity or another, WyGen III is just the latest commitment to both energy production and the Gillette area.
“Power plant projects like this are part of a long-term resource plan that we work toward,” says Gene Decker, generation chemical processes manager for Black Hills. “WyGen 3 keeps us up to snuff in terms of customer needs versus available electric resources. By having our own facilities, Black Hills is able to assure adequate supplies of electricity at stable prices.”
That’s why the ribbon-cutting at WyGen III won’t even be over before the next round of plants are in the planning phases, which is good news for the local economy.
“We’re already looking ahead to the future and studying the need for power beyond the commercial operation of WyGen 3,” Decker says. “We’ve been in the area more than 85 years and in business for 125 years. We have grown from a small electric utility to a mid-cap utility, and that’s exciting. We’re happy with the growth and our biggest problem is just finding enough good Wyoming employees to complement those we already have as we continue to grow.”
But, he adds, “That’s a good challenge.”
It’s also a task that local officials are working on in tandem with the various energy providers and their feeder businesses in the area, says Susan Jerke, interim executive director of the Campbell County Economic Development Corp.
“We have 14 coal mines in the basin and they’re still very active, and then there are the coal plants and a planned test facility for a coal-gasification plant, so it’s a very vibrant industry here,” Jerke says. “And the more energy that the country and the world continue to use, the more they will need our coal.”
Building and sustaining an employee base is one of many items on the industry’s wish list, so the CCEDC holds annual events such as its industry forum to get a sense of how a new administration in Washington, the slow economy and other factors are affecting things on the ground.
“We’ve been insulated fairly well from what’s happening nationally so far, but we need to be on top of it,” Jerke says. “We stay in contact with all our companies, many of which sit on our board of directors and are major investors in our organization. We’re working on meeting their needs, and we all benefit from each other’s efforts.”
Story by Joe Morris
