Galax, Virginia (Platts)--30Mar2009

Great River Energy's 188-MW Stanton station and Basin Electric Power
Cooperative's 650-MW Leland Olds plant returned to service over the weekend,
spokesmen for both companies said Monday.

"We were back online late evening on Saturday," Great River spokesman
Lyndon Anderson said Monday.

At Basin Electric, both Leland Olds units are running, spokesman Daryl
Hill said Monday, although unit 1 currently is generating at half capacity as
it awaits higher river levels. Leland Olds-1 was back early Sunday morning and
Leland Olds-2 early Monday.

Stanton and Leland Olds--both of which rely on Missouri River water for
cooling and steam generation--were shut down last week after the US Army Corps
of Engineers reduced river water levels from the Garrison Dam to ease flooding
that was aggravated by chunks of ice that were blocking river flows.

Deliveries of coal to the plants continue and stockpiles remained at good
levels, both Anderson and Hill said Monday. Rio Tinto Energy America's Spring
Creek coal is railed from Montana to Stanton and North American Coal's Freedom
lignite mine, near Leland Olds, supplies that plant.

After fighting floods in some parts of the state over the past week,
North Dakota residents also had to dig out from as much as 15 inches of snow
that fell early Monday.

--Steve Hooks, steve_hooks@platts.com