High-voltage substation construction and transformer work across South Dakota. Here is the grid ESS operates in.
Wind has become South Dakota's leading source of electricity, generating roughly half of in-state power in recent years. Hydropower from four large Missouri River dams (Oahe, Big Bend, Fort Randall, and Gavins Point) supplies much of the rest, with natural gas and a share of coal completing the mix. South Dakota draws a large majority of its electricity from renewable resources.
South Dakota's wind capacity has grown faster than the transmission available to export it, and new projects face interconnection limits along the seam between the SPP and MISO markets that split the state. Joint SPP-MISO studies have identified a portfolio of transmission upgrades intended to relieve these seam constraints and allow more generation to connect. Long distances between rural wind sites and demand centers add to the transmission need.
Shown as regional context, the major electric utilities and grid organizations operating in South Dakota. ESS builds substations and installs EHV apparatus across the western grid and has mobilized wherever the work is since 1978.
Tell us the voltage class, the site, and the timeline. ESS mobilizes across the West.
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