Power Suppliers
About 30 percent of NIPCO’s power comes from the dams along the Missouri River. The remainder of the power is produced by clean, low-cost thermal generation augmented by a growing portion of wind generation. Basin Electric Power Cooperative, headquartered in Bismarck, N.D., provides that power.
When rural electric cooperatives first were established beginning in the mid-1930s, each cooperative purchased its power locally. But as electric needs grew, cooperatives banded together to find other sources of power. So it was in western Iowa. Thirteen electric cooperatives formed Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative in 1949 to construct and maintain a power delivery system to purchase and deliver all future power supply needs for its members. NIPCO is headquartered in
Le Mars, Iowa.
Originally, the Missouri River dams supplied all power needs for NIPCO members. Load growth studies in the 1960s showed a need for an additional power source. Cooperative leaders from eight states worked together to form Basin Electric Power Cooperative which now owns and operates generating stations that supply the electric needs of cooperatives throughout the Midwest. Basin Electric’s generating stations operate with sophisticated technology to protect air quality. Coal fields supplying the generating stations are returned to productive farm land. Basin Electric has received national recognition for efficiency and low-cost power production.
Today, NIPCO purchases low-cost power on behalf of its members and transmits the power to substations where electric cooperatives take that final step of delivering reliable, safe power to its members.