Otter Tail Valley Railroad to lose largest customer in 2020 NEWSWIRE

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – The Otter Tail Valley Railroad will lose its largest customer when the Otter Tail Power Co. shuts down its two coal fired generators at its Fergus Falls plant in 2020. However, the later date is a victory for the railroad and power company since environmental groups had urged the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to require an earlier closure of the plant, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Otter Tail Valley had said it might go out of business if the plant ended coal deliveries. Now the railroad will move coal trains to the plant for another seven years.

Otter Tail Power will invest $10 million to comply with a mercury-control deadline, allowing the two-unit Hoot Lake plant to burn coal until 2020. The utility must now propose how to replace the coal generators. The options include new natural gas generators, renewable energy, or more conservation.

The generators, which went into service in 1958 and 1964, supply about 20 percent of the electricity for Otter Tail’s 129,000 customers in western Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

On Oct. 27, 1986, the Otter Tail Valley Railroad commenced service over 151 miles of track between Avon and Moorhead, Minn., plus short branches out of Fergus Falls, the line’s headquarters. Ninety percent of the railroad’s business was between Moorhead and Fergus Falls, and in 1991 the railroad abandoned the 96 miles of railroad east of Fergus Falls. Owned by Genesee & Wyoming, OTVR interchanges with BNSF Railway at Dilworth. In addition to coal, the railroad handles ethanol, corn, grain, and soybeans.