New Natural Gas Plant Coming To Superior

SUPERIOR, Wis. — The planned new natural gas plant in Superior took another major step toward completion.

Thursday, Minnesota Power and Northern Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades signed a letter of intent on the construction of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center.

Officials tell Fox21 it’ll fill the gap between retiring coal facilities and future renewable energy.

Minnesota Power will hire 350 mostly local workers for the construction. There will be twenty-five full time jobs at the plant after the project’s completion.

Work is scheduled to begin next Spring and is expected to take about 4 years. Minnesota Power says the community will be significantly affected in several different ways.

“It’s jobs in the area, it’s reliability of grid our in the area, as well as back up assistance for our renewable projects that are already in play and running like solar and wind. It provides the grid with stability and back up from a reliability standpoint to ensure that we have power supply at all time,” said Todd Simmons, VP of Minnesota Power.

The natural gas plant will be operated in partnership with Dairyland Power and Basin Electric.