Participating Utilities Announce Wind-Down of Big Stone II Project

BISMARCK, N.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU) announced today that the Big Stone II Project, a planned 500-to-600-megawatt coal-fired power plant to be located near Milbank, South Dakota, and its associated transmission, will not be built. The project’s four participants include Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., a division of MDU Resources.

“We will now look at other supply options that are reliable and cost-beneficial for our customers. We have plans to expand our wind production by 30 megawatts in 2010 and will review other generation options.”

The project required additional participants to move forward; however none have committed.

Montana-Dakota President and Chief Executive Officer Dave Goodin said that, while it’s disappointing that Big Stone II will not be built, the utility has an adequate electric supply for the near-term.

“We have a purchased power agreement through 2015 that was to bridge us to Big Stone II going online; we still have that agreement in place,” Goodin said. “We will now look at other supply options that are reliable and cost-beneficial for our customers. We have plans to expand our wind production by 30 megawatts in 2010 and will review other generation options.”

The other Big Stone II Project participants were Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Heartland Consumers Power District and Missouri River Energy Services.

MDU Resources Group, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 index, provides value-added natural resource products and related services that are essential to energy and transportation infrastructure, operating in three core lines of business: energy, utility resources and construction materials. MDU Resources includes natural gas and oil production, natural gas pipelines and energy services, electric and natural gas utilities, construction services, and construction materials and contracting. For more information about MDU Resources, see the company's Web site at www.mdu.com.