Spirit Lake Tribe – 2018 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The Spirit Lake Tribe (SLT) will install a 1.5-megawatt (MW) wind turbine to provide low-cost electricity to tribal members, displacing approximately 62% of the electricity used by 12 tribal facilities and approximately 350 residential consumers. The project will result in annual savings of approximately $500,000.

The Spirit Lake Tribe (formerly known as Devils Lake Sioux) is a federally recognized Tribe based on a Reservation in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake. It is made up of people of the Pabakse (Iháŋkthuŋwaŋna), Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ), and Wahpeton (Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ) Bands.

In 2011, SLT began resource assessment for wind development. Several studies conducted under the U.S. Department of the Interior Division of Energy and Mineral Development resulted in the installation of a 100-meter meteorological tower, which has accumulated wind resource data for several years. Additional studies assessed the feasibility of developing a tribal electric utility. Large credits available to the Tribe based on Western Area Power Administration hydropower allocations and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) benefits, both of which go to incumbent utilities, enabled the creation of an economic road map for tribal utility formation incorporating these credits with distributed wind. This project is responsive to that road map.

SLT will install one Vensys 1.5-MW wind turbine on tribal trust lands near Fort Totten. This community wind project will generate approximately 4.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), offsetting the tribe’s energy consumption on Northern Plains Co-op service. The expected revenue/savings generated from this project will be approximately $500,000 per year. Currently, SLT’s commercial and residential customers use 7.7 million kWh per year through Northern Plains. SLT pays about $833,000 annually for electricity service to Northern Plains Co-op. Energy from this installation will displace approximately 62% of the loads of 12 tribal facilities and approximately 350 residential consumers and save approximately $500,000 of current annual energy costs of $833,000. A bill credit mechanism administered through the proposed tribal utility organization will facilitate the distribution of this savings.

The objective of this project is to procure and install one 1.5-MW Vensys wind turbine on SLT tribal lands near Fort Totten in North Dakota, interconnected with incumbent utility distribution service. Meeting this objective requires expertise in electrical, mechanical, civil, and environmental engineering, as well as project management associated with these disciplines. SLT has teamed with a qualified distributed wind installer and an experienced tribal energy development company to complete the following:

• Preconstruction Phase: This phase addresses all the design and permitting issues associated with this project. It also includes securing the agreements that allow purchase and finance of the project.
• Construction Phase: This phase addresses the delivery of components, site preparation, construction, and completion of the installation.
• Community Outreach and Grants Management: This phase includes the prudent management of grant funds as well as community outreach, which is key to the success of this project and will take place throughout the other phases.

Established in 1867 in a treaty between Sisseton-Wahpeton Bands and the U.S. government, the Reservation, consists of 495 square miles of land area, primarily in Benson and Eddy counties. Smaller areas extend into Ramsey, Wells, and Nelson counties. The Spirit Lake Tribe will install one 1.5-MW wind turbine on tribal trust lands near Fort Totten.  

The project was competitively selected under the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy Fiscal Year 2018 funding opportunity announcement “Energy Infrastructure Deployment on Tribal Lands - 2018” (DE-FOA-0001847) and started in May 2019.

The project status reports provide more information.