Thomson Hydro Station Back Up and Running

THOMSON, Minn. - After historic flood waters shut down operations at the Thomson Hydro Station,the facility is finally up and running after millions of dollars in repairs."We are pleased to announce that Thomson Hydro Station is once again generating electricity for our customers," Minnesota Power Chief Operating Officer Brad Oachs said. The generators are humming."Believe me, that's music to our ears," said Oachs. It's dry now, but the Northland Flash Flood submerged the power house's turbines, overtopped the reservoir and breached the fore bay dike."It impacted our facilities on the St. Louis River beyond anything we had ever experienced before," said Oachs. For the last two-and-half years, Minnesota Power employees, contractors and suppliers have inspected, torn apart and rebuilt damaged equipment and electrical systems."This work positions Thomson as a safe, reliable and cost effective renewable energy resource for our customers well into the future," said Oachs. Crews have even taken advantage of this extended down time to get 10 years of maintenance work done in just two years."It actually provided thousands of hours, man hours, for the local economy benefiting from these high skilled professional workers," State Representative Mike Sundin said. To mark the shutdown and resurgence of the renewable energy plant, Minnesota Power employees placed memorabilia into a time capsule."This is our story of what we did during the event to get us started on rebuilding," said Nora Rosemore with Minnesota Power."I couldn't be more proud of what these people have done in the last two-and-a-half years of putting this all together," said Minnesota Power employee Thomas Donofrio.The facility is expected to opeate at 100 percent by late spring. Repairs to the hydro station will cost $90 million.