Cushing Power Plant

The Cushing Power Plant was established in 1936. The years of 1907 through 1911 were made up of agricultural and farming interest; city farmers were setting up ordinances for improvements such as electric, gas and water. In 1918 the Minnesota Electric Light and Power Company was given the responsibility to manufacture and distribute electricity to the city of Cushing. In 1930 it became the Interstate Power Company. After a heated dispute among the citizens of Cushing, which lasted approximately 5 years, it was agreed to generate and distribute our own electricity and maintain our own electric lines.

Construction was started on the Cushing Power Plant in approximately 1935 and initially, 3 generators were installed with a total generation of 1500 kW. Since then there have been several generators installed, with the most recent being in 1988. Construction of the Cushing Power Plant was approximately 33 million dollars. The Cushing Power Plant employs 8 people.

Today, our 11 generators have a total generation of 21,650 kW plus 40,000 kW may be purchased from GRDA. We are a Public Power Community, which means that every time you pay your electric utility bill or flip a switch, you and your community reap the benefits. In a Public Power Community, a portion of the revenue is reinvested to improve and maintain crucial city services, such as fire, police, parks and roads. Local power means local control and ownership. It works for the benefit of you and your town, giving you a voice.

As a local power community, your utility service is dedicated to getting the power back. Because when your lights go out, so do ours. 99.9% of the time local power communities have no interruption in service, which means we have service reliability and accessibility.