Burgum, Sanford celebrate Coal Creek Station’s sale to Rainbow Energy Center as key to ND’s energy future

Gov. Doug Burgum and Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford today applauded the sale of Coal Creek Station to Rainbow Energy Center LLC as a landmark moment for the future of energy production in North Dakota and the culmination of more than a year of determined efforts by the administration and others to save the state’s largest power plant, preserving critical baseload power and hundreds of jobs.

Great River Energy (GRE) announced in May 2020 its plans to retire Coal Creek Station, a 1,151-megwatt generating plant in Underwood, during the second half of 2022. At the time, the Governor’s Office had already been actively engaged in conversations with GRE to transfer or sell Coal Creek Station to third party operators. Burgum announced on March 25, 2021, that GRE was in exclusive negotiations to sell Coal Creek Station and GRE’s high-voltage, direct current transmission system that extends between central North Dakota and Minnesota.

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