(From left): Travis Schall, Patrick Hurt, Christopher Sutton and Bradley Schneider stand in front of Basin Electric’s PrairieWinds 1 project near Minot, ND.
PRAIRIEWINDS SUBSIDIARIES THRIVE ON SAFETY, CAPACITY By Dain Sullivan Dreams. You pursue them every day. You’re the farmer who sows the land for a bountiful harvest; the parent who works to give your children a happy life; the business owner putting everything on the line to fulfill a lifelong goal. That’s why Basin Electric staff took on the challenge when members dreamed of adding wind power to the cooperative’s generation mix. To this day, subsidiaries PrairieWinds ND 1 and PrairieWinds SD 1 continue to not only power communities, but exceed expectations in safety and capacity.
Prime examples of co-op’s safety ideals The PrairieWinds employees have become shining examples of workplace safety, reaching incredible milestones. A recent example was when the employees at PrairieWinds 1, south of Minot, ND, celebrated five years of operation without an injury. For
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Kevin Tschosik, Basin Electric manager of distributed generation, it’s an accomplishment wor th celebrating. “Five years with no injuries is huge,” Tschosik says. “You need the proper tools, safety procedures and consistency on a daily basis to have this sort of record.” Tschosik says building trust and accountability is key when employees take part in regular training. For example, with PrairieWinds, that means embracing the buddy system when climbing and working on wind towers. Rest assured: before employees climb, they’ve put in the time. “Our wind technicians do not climb a tower until we’ve trained them in our tower rescue training program,” Tschosik says. “You’re working 260 feet in the air, so we train people to either rescue themselves or their buddy in case of an incident.”