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The little power plant that could; Small facility south of Butte can help light 40,000 homes
This small nondescript building, where the sound of whirring engines can barely be heard just feet away from the plant, enough electricity is produced to light more than 40,000 homes.
The natural-gas-fired operation, which came online in 2006 ...The plant can go from a dead stop to fully operational in nine minutes, providing the perfect complement to the wind power coming from Judith Gap in Central Montana.
"Wind obviously doesn't blow evenly all day long," Markovich said. "This helps us fill in the gaps."
March 1, 2010
by Tim Trainor
in The Montana Standard
On the hottest and coldest of days, on days when the wind doesn't blow and on days that it blows too hard, NorthWestern Energy relies on a Butte power plant to keep electricity humming evenly across its grid.
Yes, you read that right.
"I bet 95 percent of people don't realize that Butte has a power plant," said Rich Potvin, manager of the Basin Creek Power Plant, located south of town behind the Butte Industrial Park.
But from this small nondescript building, where the sound of whirring engines can barely be heard just feet away from the plant, enough electricity is produced to... [continue via Web link]
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