Sioux Center Municipal Utilities is making progress toward adding more than 11 megawatts of local standby electric generation, improving the community’s long-term energy security.
The City Council recently reviewed construction concept for the local generation facility. It is to be built just south of Sioux Center’s north electric substation and water tower. Work on the building will start in spring 2026. It will house four Caterpillar generators, scheduled to arrive in 2027.
“Local generation is one way we can strategically invest in reliability and rate stability in Sioux Center as we see the energy market continue to fluctuate with factors ranging from weather to politics,” said Utilities Manager Murray Hulstein.
The generation is a partnership between Sioux Center and the city’s wholesale power supplier, Missouri River Energy Services (MRES), and the plan is to operate at the rare times when electricity is limited or very expensive on the entire grid. This will reduce the overall cost for MRES to provide energy to all 61 members, which then benefits members like Sioux Center. MRES is primarily funding the $24 million project.
In addition, this generation will provide emergency power in an extreme situation in which power supply was cut off to Sioux Center. This 11 megawatts of generation would partially power the town, which has a peak demand of about 27 megawatts. The generators will be equipped with backup batteries and be able to run even if power to them is cut, Electric Department Head Ezra Weikert said.
“This facility doesn’t need to be connected to the grid to start,” Weikert said “With this generation, if we lose power transmission from outside Sioux Center, we would have something we could do to take care of our citizens.”
Sioux Center Municipal Utilities safely and reliably provides power at competitive rates to more than 2,760 customers throughout the community.