Otter Tail Power files long-term plan for new gas, wind projects

Otter Tail Power has put a 15-year blueprint on the table that could shape what customers pay, how reliably electricity flows and which plants supply the region through 2041. The utility’s new integrated resource plan calls for a 50-megawatt natural gas plant around 2031 or 2032, followed by two more 50-megawatt wind projects in 2035 and 2040.

The filing, submitted May 15 to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission under docket E017/RP-26-90, covers the 2027-2041 period. Otter Tail Power said it expects the commission to issue a decision in mid-2027, after a public review process that will weigh cost, reliability, emissions and generation choices across the company’s service area, including Otter Tail County.

The company’s plan does not start from zero. Otter Tail said Solway Solar is expected in 2026, Abercrombie Solar in 2028, along with a 75-megawatt battery storage facility and additional wind generation that were already in development. That mix shows the company is still leaning on multiple resources at once, using dispatchable natural gas, variable wind and solar, and storage to cover demand growth and reliability risks.

For customers, the central question is not just what gets built, but what it could mean for electric bills over the next decade and a half. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission says an integrated resource plan is a 15-year planning document that lets stakeholders examine a utility’s planned generation. That review can affect electricity rates, making the docket a key stop for consumer advocates, clean energy groups, labor unions, state agencies and local residents alike.

The new filing also lands after the commission approved Otter Tail Power’s prior 2022-2036 resource plan on May 31, 2024. That earlier decision required the company to acquire or build at least 375 megawatts and up to 575 megawatts of renewable resources by 2030. The commission also determined that Otter Tail would no longer use Coyote Station to serve Minnesota customers beyond Dec. 31, 2031, a change that raises the stakes for every new generation decision now under review.

Otter Tail Power expects to file a separate resource plan in North Dakota in 2027. South Dakota does not currently require one. In Minnesota, though, the next ruling will help define whether the region’s power future is built around more wind and solar, a new gas plant, storage or some combination of all four, with the costs and reliability tradeoffs landing directly in customers’ monthly bills.