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Ben French

Natural gas power plant · Pennington County, South Dakota

Nameplate capacity

110 MW

Rank in South Dakota

#25

of 54 plants

In service since

1965

July 1965

Details

Primary fuel: Natural gas
Technology: Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine
Operator: Black Hills Power, Inc.
County: Pennington County
Generating units: 9
Share of state capacity: 1.43%
Rank among natural gas plants in South Dakota: #6 of 11
EIA plant code: 3325

Generating units

Individual generating units at Ben French
Unit	Technology	Nameplate	Summer	Online	Status
GT1	Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine	25 MW	17 MW	1977	Operating
GT2	Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine	25 MW	17 MW	1977	Operating
GT3	Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine	25 MW	17 MW	1978	Operating
GT4	Natural Gas Fired Combustion Turbine	25 MW	17 MW	1979	Operating
1	Petroleum Liquids	2.0 MW	2.0 MW	1965	Operating
2	Petroleum Liquids	2.0 MW	2.0 MW	1965	Operating
3	Petroleum Liquids	2.0 MW	2.0 MW	1965	Operating
4	Petroleum Liquids	2.0 MW	2.0 MW	1965	Operating
5	Petroleum Liquids	2.0 MW	2.0 MW	1965	Operating

Nameplate is the maximum rated output; summer capacity is what the unit can reliably deliver on a hot day, which is typically lower.

Similarly sized plants in South Dakota

Wild Springs	Solar	128 MW
Aberdeen CT	Natural gas	111 MW
Willow Creek Wind Power LLC	Wind	105 MW
Day County Wind LLC	Wind	99 MW

About this data

From EIA’s inventory of operable generators, May 2026 release. Capacity is nameplate — the maximum rated output of the equipment, not what the plant actually generates over a year, which depends on how often it runs. A 110 MW solar plant and a 110 MW nuclear plant have the same entry here and produce very different amounts of electricity.

“In service since” is the earliest in-service date among the units still listed, so a site rebuilt around newer equipment can read as younger than the site itself. All South Dakota power plants · What South Dakota actually generates