Laramie River Station water source filled to capacity

Grayrocks Reservoir, the main water source for operations at the 1,702-megawatt Laramie River Station near Wheatland, Wyo., has made an amazing comeback from a dwindling capacity level that had dropped to less than 20 percent a few years ago, to brimming over the spillway at more than 100 percent this spring, according to Wayne Child, who serves on the boards of Basin Electric Power Cooperative (operator of the plant) and Tri-State.

Child provided the good news in his monthly Basin report at the June Tri-State board meeting being held this week in Westminster. He noted that the drought-stricken reservoir had benefited from heavy snowfall and four inches of recent rain in the region.

Tri-State is a 24 percent owner in the plant and the ancillary transmission facilities that comprise the Missouri Basin Power Project. As such, Tri-State receives 410 megawatts of capacity from LRS.