MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Xcel Energy Inc. and other plaintiffs are suing General Electric Co., claiming it had a known defect in a turbine that broke down at one of its plants and led to millions of dollars in losses.

The turbine outage happened at the Sherco 3 electric generator in Becker in 2011. The turbine was being tested after an outage when it began to vibrate and broke apart, starting a fire, the Star Tribune reported.

Xcel says the 22 months of repairs that followed cost it more than $200 million. Its lawsuit alleges that GE and its affiliates knew about a defect in its turbine blades for decades and had documented earlier failures and improved its design, but never told Xcel about the problem.

A GE representative didn’t immediately respond to a call and email seeking comment.