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Tyler Hamman, vice president of Community Engagement and External Affairs at Base Electron, speaks to the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s Energy Committee in Minot on Monday, Nov. 9.
A proposed natural-gas fired, electrical generating station in Oliver County would offer numerous economic benefits in the region, according to a project spokesperson who presented at the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s Energy Committee meeting in Minot Monday, Nov. 9.
Base Electron’s proposed Missouri Bend Energy Center will be a 1,200-megawatt, natural gas-driven facility designed to support the electrical needs of a nearby data center, said Tyler Hamman, the company’s vice president of Community Engagement and External Affairs.
The generation plant will be somewhat larger than the state’s current largest generating facility, lignite-fueled Coal Creek Station near Underwood, which is just over 1,100 megawatts. Another natural gas facility, Basin Electric’s approximately 1,490-megawatt Bison Generation Station, is under construction in Williams County.
Base Electron is working on permitting through the county and will be filing for permits with the North Dakota Public Service Commission and North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality. The hope is to break ground next spring, Hamman said. Operational startup could happen in the second half of 2030.
Base Electron, headquartered in Plano, Texas, is an independent power producer, incorporated in December 2025. The company formed specifically to provide power generation for large industrial loads, particularly data centers.
“We have the same co-founders as Applied Digital, but we’re organized as a separate company,” Hamman said.
Base Electron’s first anchor project is the proposed Applied Digital data center in Oliver County. The company plans to build a $2.4 billion steam turbine electrical plant in association with a long-term power purchase agreement with Applied Digital.
“Those dollars are going to recycle several times throughout the community by the time it’s all said and done. So, pretty significant investment for the region, a lot of construction jobs,” Hamman said. “We’re guessing it’s probably going to be about 300 (workers) on an average rolling basis throughout the construction period, but we hope to get about 1,000 on site for a short period of time in 2028. Sixty to 70 full-time jobs once we finish operations. So, those will be anything from technicians, maintenance, operators, welders, boiler workers, etc.
“And then, of course, you’re going to have seasonal and cyclical maintenance every few years,” he added. “That will bring 100 to 200 workers at a time during those periods.”
In addition, the project will generate both property taxes and an electrical generation tax. The use of natural gas will help sustain that piece of the energy industry while generating additional taxes, Hamman said.
Base Electron has a natural gas agreement with WBI Energy, which plans to construct the Bakken East Pipeline to run about 350 miles from near Watford City to near Fargo.
Hamman noted North Dakota has a large gas production industry that creates opportunity for a low-cost and secure supply of fuel to feed power facilities. Use of that natural gas helps address reliability concerns within the transmission grid, he said.
Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the region’s transmission organization, predicts the need for 15-20 gigawatts of power by 2035, creating opportunity for new power generation, Hamman said.
“We’ve set ourselves up to capitalize on the energy infrastructure and the investment environment in North Dakota to utilize produced gas and meet the need for reliability,” he said of Basin Electron.
Hamman said the company chose a location enabling it to access transmission infrastructure already in place. Missouri Bend Energy Center will connect into an existing 345 kV power line.
Base Electron acquired 312 acres, much of it to be used during the construction period. The operational footprint will be 30-50 acres, Hamman said. Applied Digital’s data center will be about a mile north and will be served by the local utility.
“But we’re basically providing that power as a capacity backstop to the grid,” Hamman said.
Base Electron estimates a need for about a million and a half gallons of water a day.
The intent is to draw water from Nelson Lake, located about eight miles from the proposed plant and fed by the Missouri River. If that option is not available, the draw would come directly from the Missouri River, 16 miles away. The usage represents a fraction of a percent of Missouri River flows, Hamman said.
“We’re using air cool condensing, which significantly reduces your water demand,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of recycling of the water.”
The proposed construction would come at a time when other regional construction will be happening on the Applied Digital data center, the River Run Energy Center gas-powered plant and data center campus in Mercer County and the Garrison spillway. It could result in a demand for 10,000 construction workers in a confined region in a short period of time, but Hamman said trade unions are confident they can provide the workers.
