Powder River Energy Corporation and Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative employees tour Dry Fork Station

On Feb. 13, Dry Fork Station hosted a tour of the power plant for employees of Basin Electric Class C member Powder River Energy Corporation (PRECorp) and Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC) located in Baker City, Oregon.

The purpose of the tour was for new employees from PRECorp and Kassie Schnell, OTEC director of human resources, to gain first-person experience in seeing the operations of a coal plant. Although OTEC is not a member of Basin Electric, they felt Dry Fork Station was the best place to do that. OTEC gets its power from hydroelectric generation, so this was an opportunity for them to see alternate sources at work.

Nolan Bray, Dry Fork Station plant engineer, and Eli Klein, Dry Fork Station operations superintendent, were the tour guides for the day.

“We hope that the employees on the tour saw how clean and efficient coal power production can be when it is done correctly,” says Bray.

Tim Velder, PRECorp marketing communications specialist, says employees on the tour gained appreciation for the size and magnitude of the operation.

“They got to see the simple concept of taking coal out of the ground, prepping it on site, creating heat energy, and spinning the generator to send electricity out to the nation,” says Velder. “They also got to see the complexities of every aspect of the plant with real-time readings on computer screens, the automated systems, and critical importance of developing the carbon capture technology on site.”

Velder says PRECorp is fortunate to have a close relationship with Basin Electric and its Dry Fork Station team whose culture of service to the membership allows them to tour the facilities.

“We are closely connected to Dry Fork Station because it sits inside our service territory and our members can see where part of their electricity generation mix comes from,” says Velder.