Black Hills Corp closes the acquisition of 50% stake in 29 MW wind project in US

Black Hills Corp. announced that its power generation subsidiary, Black Hills Electric Generation, LLC, completed the purchase of a 50 percent ownership interest in the 29 megawatt Busch Ranch I Wind Farm located near Pueblo, Colorado, for approximately US$16 million from AltaGas Power Holdings (U.S.) Inc. Black Hills Colorado Electric, an affiliate utility company doing business as Black Hills Energy, owns the remaining 50 percent ownership and operates the wind farm.

The Busch Ranch I Wind Farm is located 30 miles south of Pueblo, Colo., in Huerfano County, and consists of 16 wind turbines. All of the energy from the wind farm has been serving the 96,000 customers of Colorado Electric since operations began in October 2012. Black Hills Electric Generation will provide its share of energy from the wind farm to Colorado Electric through an existing long-term power purchase agreement that expires in October 2037.

Black Hills Electric Generation recently received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to purchase the Busch Ranch I ownership interest. In addition, Black Hills Electric Generation is currently constructing the 60-megawatt Busch Ranch II wind project at an adjacent location, which is expected to begin serving Colorado Electric customers by year-end 2019 through a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Busch Ranch II is facility located within several contiguous parcels of private land on approximately 13,000 acres, in Huerfano and Las Animas Counties, Colorado. The area is currently used primarily for livestock grazing and is in the Agriculture zoning district.