Mitsubishi technical field advisors Gary Laramore, Takahiro Miyanaga and Aka Tsuka conduct a rice, salt and sake ceremony at the Dry Fork Station near Gillette, WY.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative workers joined colleagues from Mitsubishi in a rice, salt and sake ceremony to promote the safe operation of the new turbine generator installed at the Dry Fork power plant currently under construction.

According to Aka Tsuka, technical field advisor for Mitsubishi, the ceremony is performed to bring good luck and safety to the plant site. The same ceremony is performed at Mitsubishi headquarters every Monday for the benefit of all construction sites.

In this ceremony on the turbine deck of the new power plant, the workers placed a square of rice paper at each corner of the turbine-generator assembly. They poured a small portion of rice on the paper, followed by a sprinkle of salt. After pouring sake over the rice and salt, the workers bowed twice, then clapped twice and then bowed again.

The 385-MW Dry Fork Station, 7 miles north of Gillette, WY, is a coal-based electric generation power plant owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency. Sub-bituminous coal from the nearby Dry Fork Mine north of Gillette will fuel Dry Fork Station via a conveyor system approximately one mile in length.

Basin Electric expects to commission the Dry Fork Station sometime in the summer of 2011.