Dec. 13, 2024 Update

During the week of Dec. 2, all OPPD Standing Bear Lake Station engines completed the “first fire” milestone on fuel oil. As a duel-fueled plant, the process of “first fire” on natural gas will begin as soon as Dec. 15, with noticeable activities happening on the site before then. The next round of engine firing begins with the generators connecting to the grid, firing again on fuel oil ahead of natural gas, and then completing first fire on natural gas and running the engines under different operating loads.

As each of the nine engines go through this complex testing process, neighbors may hear or see new things happening, such as smoke or exhaust, or an increased amount of noises coming from the plant, as the engines are tested and tuned at the varying operating loads. The testing of all engines on both fuel sources will take a couple months as they test safety functions, install and tune the exhaust systems that reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, and test a variety of performance parameters. As the generating units continue to be tested over the next several weeks, exhaust should become much less noticeable.

Standing Bear Lake Station is expected to be substantially complete and ready to generate electricity commercially in February 2025.