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East Main Street at the Rock River Bridge was a busy place Tuesday and Wednesday when two 50,000-pound generators were installed by crane in Luverne’s power plant.
The two 3-megawatt generators joined the city’s existing 1960s 3-megawatt generator in the power plant.
The combined 9-megawatt continuous capacity of the three generators will ensure Luverne’s backup generation can carry a major part of the city’s total electrical load in the event of an outage.
Feeding the grid
The new generators will also allow the city to provide more backup power for Missouri River Energy Services, which contracts with Luverne for that energy.
This service was needed in February of 2021 when Luverne’s backup generator was called into action during the polar vortex.
Luverne’s generator ran for 78 hours straight to support the regional power grid under pressure from the record cold snap in the south where millions of homes and businesses in 10 states were without power.
Electric utility supervisor Brian Remme and his crews worked alternate shifts around the clock to monitor the generator and keep it fueled.
The backup generator is started every month to make sure it will generate power when needed, but city officials don’t remember a time when the Luverne generator was used in this capacity to support a widespread power shortage.
It told its members to begin controlled outages and reached out to its member utilities for helping to generate power for the grid.
MRES currently pays the city $75,000 per year to keep its generators in working condition for backup power in peak usage times.
In a new capacity agreement, MRES will pay Luverne $6.7 million over 30 years, which will help pay for roughly half the $11.8 million total cost of the project.
In addition to the new generators, that work includes:
•modernizing the east substation and the associated switchgear.
•a new control building (the prefabricated building was delivered March 2).
•necessary improvements to the power plant to house the generation equipment.
Rice Lake Construction is the contractor for work that most recently included removal of the coal bunker building, other selective demolition, miscellaneous interior concrete construction, interior steel construction and mobilization costs.