The upper floors of Antelope Valley Station are not for the faint of heart. Heat from the 277-foot-tall boiler lingers on these floors, and the conveniently placed thermometer on the 18th floor shows a blistering 120-degrees Fahrenheit. Grate floors allow an astonishing view of each floor below, as well as the various pipes and machinery surrounding the boiler.  And on the 17th floor, a small window allows a fiery view into the heart of the boiler.

Members on the VIP Tour geared up with hard hats, ear protection, and safety glasses for a peek inside the boiler, which can reach 2,300-degrees Fahrenheit. That is the temperature necessary to turn lignite coal from the nearby Freedom Mine into energy that is sent out across the nation, including to Northern Electric Cooperative members.

The VIP Tour allows members to get a better understanding of the scale and work necessary to power our everyday lives. This year, Northern partnered with fellow electric cooperatives, Lake Region Electric of Webster and FEM Electric of Ipswich, to treat cooperative members to a two-day trip that included tours of Basin Electric Power Cooperative headquarters, Wilton Wind Farm, Freedom Mine, Antelope Valley Station, and Dakota Gasification Synfuels Plant. The mine, coal processing plant, and synthetic natural gas plants are all situated within a couple miles of each other and are all subsidiaries of Basin Electric.

“It was a good education for me,” said Barney Bruns.

While Barney was most interested in the wind farm, he found the whole tour enlightening and was impressed by the marketing department at Basin Headquarters. A wall covered with screens showed the real time production of Basin’s energy sources as well as market trends and energy prices. As part of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Basin plays the market, selling and buying electricity from the grid, in order to keep prices as low as possible for our members.

“Seeing how Basin handles all their sources of energy was quite interesting. I did not know anything about it,” Barney said. 

The Freedom Mine tour was also a highlight for many of the members. The bus was able to drive right into the area that is currently being mined, where massive trucks with tires taller than the bus were filled by loaders big enough to grab literal tons of coal at a time.

The process was not what Sharol Binger was expecting.

“It was way cleaner than I thought it would be,” Sharol said. “I had always thought of mines as very grungy places. Instead, it was tidy with wide open spaces.”

The road to the active Freedom Mine was surrounded by fields and sections of open prairie. After all the coal in an area has been harvested, the land is returned to the same state, topography, and function, as part of the reclamation process required by the state.

After seeing the process of making electricity and getting it on the electrical grid, Deb walked away with a new appreciation for the convenience of flipping on a switch and having power.

“I’m very amazed. The process is something I knew of, but not the scope. The scale is mind boggling,” Deb said