Elk River
Elk River is a 191.3 MW natural-gas-fired simple-cycle combustion turbine peaking plant in Sherburne County, Minnesota, near the city of Elk River. It is owned and operated by Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative serving 28 member distribution cooperatives in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The plant entered service in July 2009, built around a Siemens SGT6-5000F turbine chosen for its fast-start capability, letting it ramp to roughly 150 MW of output within about ten minutes to cover summer peak demand. It can also burn ultra-low-sulfur diesel as a backup fuel when gas supply is constrained. The plant is a distinct facility from Great River Energy's older Elk River Energy Recovery Station, a waste-to-energy plant on a nearby site that was shut down in March 2019 and later demolished; the gas-fired Elk River plant covered here remains in service with no whole-plant retirement scheduled. It sells into the MISO market, with its nearest price nodes around the NSP.MNTCEL1 and NSP.SHERCO1 hubs.