Regulators approve electric service for Dakota Spirit AgEnergy near Spiritwood
Regulators cleared Otter Tail Power to extend service to Dakota Spirit AgEnergy, formalizing the utility setup for Spiritwood’s 65-million-gallon ethanol plant.
North Dakota regulators approved Otter Tail Power’s request to extend electric service to Dakota Spirit AgEnergy near Spiritwood and signed off on a related electric service agreement, clearing a key utility step for the Stutsman County biorefinery.
The Public Service Commission acted on the two filings under docket numbers PU-26-094 and PU-26-095. Otter Tail filed both cases on March 19, 2026, and the commission’s notice set May 27, 2026, as the deadline for comments and hearing requests in the service-certificate case before the approval moved ahead. The filings say Dakota Spirit was already receiving electric service from Otter Tail, while Great River Energy wanted to transition that service to Otter Tail and would coordinate the change with Dakota Spirit and Otter Tail.
That makes the ruling less about bringing a new plant online than about locking in the utility structure around an operating industrial customer. For a facility like Dakota Spirit, the certificate and agreement matter because electric service is part of the infrastructure that keeps an ethanol operation running on schedule, especially when the plant is tied to other energy systems at Spiritwood.
Dakota Spirit AgEnergy is the anchor tenant at Spiritwood Energy Park, a 551-acre industrial site about 10 miles east of Jamestown that is managed by the Spiritwood Energy Park Association. The association is majority owned and operated by the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corporation, with Great River Energy as minority owner. Dakota Spirit is a 65 million-gallon-per-year biorefinery that began construction in 2013 and was producing at full annual capacity by mid-2015, according to KFI Engineers.
Project materials describe the plant as a $135 million-plus ethanol facility built beside Spiritwood Station and designed to use steam from the adjacent combined heat-and-power plant. The operation produces about 210,000 tons of distillers grains and 6,000 tons of distillers corn oil each year. A 2025 anniversary report said the plant had created more than 40 full-time jobs and produced more than 694 million gallons of denatured ethanol and nearly 24 million gallons of corn oil since startup.
The Spiritwood site is also being positioned for more industrial growth. Harvestone Low Carbon Partners says it owns and operates three ethanol biorefineries, and a separate PSC filing last year said a DSA Capture Company affiliate planned a carbon-capture facility in the same energy park. That keeps the electric-service decision tied not just to one plant, but to the longer-term industrial buildout around Spiritwood and Jamestown.
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