Dairyland Power Cooperative of La Crosse purchased natural gas-fired assets from Elgin Energy Center in Elgin, Illinois, and a Rocky Road facility in East Dundee, to support its regional grid reliability.
Dairyland said in a statement that the purchase supports its transition to a lower-carbon future, focusing on sustainability and reliability.
“These strategic investments are essential to position Dairyland to meet the growing resource adequacy and reliability needs of rural communities,” Brent Ridge, Dairyland president and CEO said in a statement. “As we continue to develop a balanced, diversified energy portfolio to support increased demand across our service territory, these facilities will play a critical role in providing the flexible, dependable energy our members rely on every day.”
Dairyland has retired nearly 600 MW of coal generation since 2014 and was awarded a $595 million New Empowering Rural America (New ERA) federal grant.
With the grant, Dairyland is securing power purchase agreements for approximately 1,000 MW of wind and solar projects in the Midwest and investing in critical transmission upgrades that support grid reliability and resiliency.
