Basin Electric Power Cooperative
North Dakota-based electricity generation and transmission cooperative
Basin Electric Power Cooperative is a wholesale electric generation and transmission cooperative based in North Dakota that provides electricity to 3 million customers in nine U.S. states. The roots of the cooperative go back to 1960 when Leland Olds and ten power suppliers created Giant Power Cooperative. Giant Power was first going to be a generation and transmission cooperative, but to keep electricity cheaper for rural customers, Basin Electric Power Cooperative was started in 1961. Today, Basin Electric's power sources include coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, waste heat, and nuclear.
The current CEO and General Manager is Todd Telesz. A subsidiary of Basin Electric, Dakota Gasification Company, operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which captures and sequesters nearly 50% of its carbon dioxide emissions in a system developed during the Carter administration. In 2005, the membership of Basin Electric passed a resolution requiring 10 percent of electricity demand to be provided by renewable forms of energy. At the end of 2009, Basin Electric finished construction on a 77 turbine wind energy project.
Member cooperatives
Direct purchasing
Grand Electric Cooperative - Bison, South Dakota
KEM Electric Cooperative - Linton, North Dakota
Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light & Power Association - Montevideo, Minnesota
Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative - Jordan, Minnesota
Mor-Gran-Sou Electric Cooperative - Flasher, North Dakota
Powder River Energy Corporation - Sundance, Wyoming
Roughrider Electric Cooperative - Hazen, North Dakota
Rosebud Electric Cooperative - Gregory, South Dakota
Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association - Rockford, Minnesota
G&T
Central Power Electric Cooperative - Minot, North Dakota
Central Montana Electric Power Cooperative - Great Falls, Montana
Corn Belt Power Cooperative - Humboldt, Iowa
East River Electric Power Cooperative - Madison, South Dakota
L & O Power Cooperative - Rock Rapids, Iowa
Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative - LeMars, Iowa
Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative - Rapid City, South Dakota
Upper Missouri G&T Electric Cooperative - Sidney, Montana
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association - Denver, Colorado
Class D Members
Flathead Electric Cooperative - Kalispell & Libby, Montana
Wyoming Municipal Power Agency - Lusk, Wyoming
States served by Basin Electric
Colorado
Iowa
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Dakota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Subsidiary companies
Basin Telecommunications Inc.
Basin Cooperative Services
Dakota Gasification Company
Dakota Coal Company
Montana Limestone Company
Prairie Winds ND 1, Inc.
The public source identifies “Basin Electric Power Cooperative” as north Dakota-based electricity generation and transmission cooperative. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Basin, Electric and Power.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4867481. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1961, 2005 and 2009.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Basin Electric Power Cooperative” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.