Nov. 3--MDU Resources Group and its partners have given up their plans for a South Dakota power plant after they could not replace another energy company that quit the project this fall.

The $1.6 billion Big Stone II plant was to be built near Milbank, S.D., by MDU Resources, and four other utility companies. The project's future became uncertain in September when one partner, Otter Tail Power of Fergus Falls, Minn., announced it was pulling out, citing the weak economy and questions over pending emissions regulation.

Rick Matteson, spokesman for MDU, said the project could not happen without another partner to take Otter Tail's place.

"They had a substantial share of the partnership and nobody came forward to pick it up," said Matteson, who would not say what other companies were considered potential partners on the plant.

The 500-600-megawatt coal-fired plant would have served around 1 million customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and Iowa.

Matteson said that his company had generation contracts through 2015 and was considering other options to replace Big Stone.

"Now what we'll do is look and see what the most practical and economic alternative is," he said.

Along with MDU and Otter Tail, the groups involved in Big Stone II were Missouri River Energy Services of Sioux Falls, S.D.; Heartland Consumer Power District of Madison, S.D.; and the Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency in Blue Earth, Minn.

(Reach reporter Christopher Bjorke at 250-8261 or chris.bjorke@bismarcktribune.com.)

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