Labor agreement planned for Nemadji Trail Energy Center

Aug. 17—SUPERIOR — Minnesota Power and the Northern Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades Council signed a letter of intent to enter into a project labor agreement for construction of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior.

The letter was signed Thursday, Aug. 17, during the Wisconsin AFL-CIO Building Trades Council conference at Barker's Island Conference Center.

Negotiations on the proposed agreement are still underway and going well, said Kyle Bukovich, president of the Northern Wisconsin council. Bukovich signed the letter on behalf of the 700 members of the council.

"We're excited to start building the great relationship we have with Minnesota Power with the ... partners in NTEC — Dairyland Power and Basin Electric," Bukovich said.

The Minnesota utility is partnering with the cooperatives based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Bismarck, North Dakota, to build the Nemadji Trail Energy Center. The 550-megawatt energy generation facility will operate on natural gas to generate electricity needed to support the expansion of wind and solar energy.

"Our three companies are aligned on some core principles that have helped guide the development of this project," said Jennifer Cady, director of regulatory and government affairs for Minnesota Power. "The first is that we all support renewable energy and reducing carbon ... we're also committed to maintaining affordability to all of customers, providing safe and reliable energy, and complying with all state, federal and local laws and regulations."

NTEC will provide baseline energy when intermittent resources like solar and wind are unavailable, using a lower carbon resource, Cady said.

The project provides safety value, said Jeremy Browning, vice president of generation for Dairyland Power Cooperative. The partnership with labor is going to be critical during construction.

Bukowski said during construction, there will be monthly safety walks to ensure the project is being done as safely as possible.

But building the plant is also critical to safety, Browning said.

"Losing the lights isn't an inconvenience," Browning said. "It's a safety concern. You look back a couple of years ago and 250 souls were lost in the state of Texas during a significant event ... the fact is the grid wasn't stable."

The region is getting some of those same signals, Browning said, and he doesn't want to be the person responsible to face the public if a significant event occurred in Wisconsin or Minnesota and people lost power, then their lives.

Cady said MISO, the grid operator, has projected a 1,200-megawatt shortfall in capacity as utilities retire older, inefficient coal units and bring on more renewable energy.

"It's the Christmas Eve resource," Cady said. "When it's dark, when everyone is at home and all your lights are on and it's cold outside, NTEC literally keeps the lights on."

Todd Simons, vice president of operations, signed the letter on behalf of Minnesota Power.

Minnesota Power has had a longstanding relationship with labor in this area, Simons said, particularly with this project.

The project still needs a finding of no significant impact on its revised supplemental environmental assessment from the USDA's Rural Utilities Service, which is open for public comment through Sept. 12. It also needs a wetland permit from the Army Corps of Engineers; and stormwater, a street vacated and zoning change from the city of Superior before construction can proceed.

Several permits have been issued by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, MISO and others.

Cady said currently, Minnesota Power is tentatively planning for spring construction if all regulatory approvals are received.

"As we get closer to construction, it's important that we have enough time to plan for the workforce that's needed," Cady said.