Basin Electric forms CORE team to evaluate risk and opportunity in carbon capture

Dan Gallagher, Basin Electric director of Commodity Sales and Trading, is leading the carbon opportunity and risk evaluation (CORE) team in an effort to evaluate risk and opportunity in the carbon capture sector. “The team is set up to complement other groups and organizations within Basin Electric,” Gallagher said. “Working with the Horizons Team, whose role is to monitor, analyze, and disseminate information regarding new technologies, CORE looks at development from a business perspective.” 

Made up of members from various departments, the CORE team keeps their project list concise to effectively review and determine if any of them should be further developed. “As opportunities come up, the team evaluates each opportunity, and if the team determines opportunities should proceed to a next step, recommendations are provided to Todd [Brickhouse, Basin Electric CEO and general manager],” Gallagher said. 

Currently, an effort is underway, headed by Kyle Weisbeck, Basin Electric mechanical engineering supervisor, to analyze carbon capture technologies and Basin Electric’s coal assets to better understand the impacts of carbon capture technologies and which assets are best suited for carbon capture. Both the Horizons Team and the CORE team will have an interest in that information when it’s done in early 2024. “The information will help to provide a foundational report that will allow the team to review projects, whether they be third party or internally developed, and understand the priorities of how we want to look at carbon capture,” Gallagher said. 

Basin Electric CORE team members are: 

• Erin Dukart, director of Environmental Services
• Anine Merkens, senior staff counsel
• Nolan Bray, plant engineer at Dry Fork Station
• Randy Banning, manager at Dakota Coal Company and Montana Limestone Company
• Chris Breiner, supervisor of the compliance program at Dakota Gas
• Darla Jensen, manager of Financial Reporting and Planning
• Tyler Schilke, supervisor of Reliability and Performance Engineering
• Jim Sheldon, manager of Mechanical Engineering
• Jean Schafer, senior legislative representative