Natural Gas Pipeline Ruptures; Will Affect Upper Midwest Xcel Customers

This is the company that is "pushing" wind energy in North Dakota. I don't know why they don't just spin their turbines faster. The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

Xcel Energy is asking customers in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to reduce their natural gas usage because of a pipeline rupture in Canada.

The Minneapolis-based company is asking residential customers who use natural gas to heat their homes to turn their thermostats down to 60 and avoid using natural gas appliances. Businesses that use natural gas also are asked to conserve.

I can't recall if I posted this story last fall. This is a press release posted at Bakken.com:

Xcel Energy is halfway to winning the regulatory approval it needs to move forward with a 750-megawatt wind energy project — enough to power about 200,000 homes.

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has signed off on the plan, which includes the construction of two wind farms in Minnesota and two more in North Dakota. The company expects the North Dakota Public Service Commission to consider the project by the end of the year.

“Wind energy is a clean, low-cost substitute for natural gas and other fuels right now,” said Dave Sparby, a senior vice president at Xcel Energy, in a statement. “These cost-competitive projects will save customers money by providing a valuable hedge to rising and volatile fuel prices well into the future.”

Sparby added that the projects will save Xcel customers “more than $225 million over the projects’ lives.”

The four wind farms proposed in the plan include Courtenay Wind Farm near Jamestown, N.D., the Odell Wind Farm near Windom, Minn., Pleasant Valley near Austin, Minn., and Border Winds Project in north central North Dakota near the Canadian border.

All four wind farms are expected to begin operating by the end of 2015.

The $225 million in savings over the projects' lives works out to about $3/customer/year based on similar projects elsewhere.

And the turbines will certainly provide a hedge when natural gas pipelines burst.

That part about "low-cost" is a bit of hyperbole, of course.

But back to the story at hand. Xcel is asking folks to avoid using natural gas appliances. Whether or not the company is recommending folks re-wire their homes to support electric appliances is not clear. LOL.

I'm relieved the rupture occurred in Canada and not the US. I have more faith in the Canadians solving these energy problems / disruptions than Washington.