Deer Creek Station achieves initial sync

Deer Creek Station's initial sync, as portrayed on a computer screen in the power plant's control room.

To most, this shot of a computer screen in a power plant’s control room doesn’t mean much. But to the staff who’ve been working at the Deer Creek Station, a 300-net megawatt combined cycle power plant under construction in Brookings County, SD, it means something big.

For the first time, the plant generated some power and put it out on the transmission grid. It happened at 5:29 p.m. April 19.

These megawatts, however, are considered test power. The megawatts vary because they’re being generated in conjunction with steam blows, which are necessary to clean the piping of the plant. Today, the plant generated as much as 26 megawatts.

Another milestone for Basin Electric’s first combined cycle power plant!