NACCO Industries, Inc. And The North American Coal Corporation Respond To Great River Energy's Coal Creek Station Announcement

NACCO Industries, Inc.®, together with its wholly owned subsidiary, The North American Coal Corporation®, today responded to Great River Energy's announcement concerning its Coal Creek Station power plant in Underwood, ND – the sole customer of The Falkirk Mining Company, a subsidiary of North American Coal.  

Earlier today, Great River Energy, the owner of the Coal Creek Station, issued a press release announcing its intent to prematurely retire the Coal Creek Station power plant in the second half of 2022 and modify the Spiritwood Station power plant in Jamestown, ND to be fueled with natural gas. Great River Energy and The Falkirk Mining Company have been contract partners since 1974 under an agreement to provide fuel to the 1,151-megawatt Coal Creek Station power plant through 2045.

"We believe Coal Creek Station is an efficient, economic and attractive generation and capacity asset, and the continued long-term operation of the facility is in the best interest of our employees, the local community, region and state," stated J.C. Butler, President and CEO of NACCO and North American Coal.  "As Great River Energy is willing to consider opportunities to sell Coal Creek Station, we are actively engaged in the exploration of options to allow for the transfer of the plant to one or more third parties, which would preserve jobs at both Coal Creek Station and the Falkirk Mine."

The Falkirk Mining Company currently has 480 full-time employees and in 2019 delivered 7.4 million tons of lignite coal to Coal Creek Station, a modest number of which were then shipped to Spiritwood Station.