Dairyland Power is implementing plans to indefinitely suspend operations at the coal-fired Alma Station (units 4 and 5) located in Alma, Wis., by early 2015.

“Dairyland is making every effort to minimize impacts on our employees,” said Bill Berg, President and CEO. “We are offering eligible employees an early retirement program and have held several other recent positions open following retirements which will give some employees the opportunity to move into other vacant positions within our cooperative.”

Many factors are considered when making important business decisions regarding the continued operation of a generation facility.

“These include age of the facility, system capacity requirements, regulatory requirements, projected maintenance needs and costs, fuel supply, overall cost of power production and regional market prices for energy,” said Berg. “This decision also aligns with Dairyland’s generation resource plans that include the diversification of its resource mix, including the continued addition of renewable resources.”