OPPD’s Standing Bear Lake Station will be hitting a major milestone, first fire, AS EARLY AS Monday, December 2. During first fire, each of the nine engines is brought up to operational speed, essentially becoming capable of generating electricity, using fuel oil as fuel for the first round, followed by natural gas as fuel for a separate, second round to be conducted later in time.

As part of the first-fire process with fuel oil, close neighbors or passersby may see some visible black smoke coming out of one of the exhaust stacks at the plant. Since this will be noticeable by many stakeholders, including neighbors, we wanted to be proactive and communicate to you in advance. As the generating units are tested and tuned, exhaust will become much less noticeable.

You can direct any of your neighbors to the Standing Bear Lake Station page of OPPDCommunityConnect.com for more information or to ask questions.

OPPD also utilizes the NextDoor social media app to inform nearby neighbors of updates.