September 2011, Vol. 238 No. 9

In The News

Utility Plans First Gas-fired Power Plant In Wyoming

Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power has applied to state regulators to build a $158 million gas-fired power plant – the first natural gas-powered electrical generating plant in the state. Construction would start on the 120-MW, three-turbine power plant in 2013. It would go online in 2014, if approved by the state utilities commission.

In Wyoming 90% of the electricity is produced by coal-fired power plants and prices per kilowatt-hour are the cheapest in the nation. But Mark Stege, the utility’s vice president for operations, said Cheyenne Light, a subsidiary of Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp., chose to build a gas-fired power plant because of the difficulty in getting permits for a coal-fired plant.