NorthWestern Energy announced Thursday that it is partnering on a high-voltage transmission line that aims to connect the nation’s eastern and western electricity grids.
Montana’s largest utility has entered into an agreement with transmission developer Grid United and Minnesota energy company ALLETE for 10% of the capacity on the North Plains Connector, 3,000-megawatt, 420-mile line that will connect Colstrip with Bismark, North Dakota.
NorthWestern wrote in a press release about the agreement that the transmission line will take advantage of diverse load and weather patterns and increase grid reliability.
“NorthWestern Energy’s Colstrip, Montana substation is strategically located and will serve as a critical endpoint for North Plains Connector, reinforcing Colstrip’s position as an essential energy hub,” NorthWestern CEO Brian Bird said in the release. “The North Plains Connector developer’s collaborative approach with Montana communities to address concerns and ensure the footprint reflects local priorities aligns with NorthWestern Energy’s commitment to our customers.”
If built, the $3.6 billion project will connect three energy markets stretching from the West Coast to Mississippi and alleviate some of the transmission constraints that have frustrated energy developers seeking to bring more power onto the country’s oversubscribed grid. ALLETE .
Kyle Unruh, the Montana and Idaho policy manager for Renewable Northwest, a green energy nonprofit, said the deal will benefit Montana energy consumers in multiple ways.
In addition to expanding NorthWestern Energy’s access to other markets to buy and sell power — “benefits that are passed on to consumers, dollar for dollar,” he said — capacity on the North Plains line will provide NorthWestern with “wheeling” income, which is a bit like a highway toll for electricity.
“North Plains Connector is a super-important project for Montana because it has the potential to provide all of these benefits, and those who subscribe to the line will see [them],” Unruh said. “It also should enable more generation to be built in the state, which has its own set of benefits. All of it’s good.”
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Project developers, policymakers and think tanks working in the capital-intensive arena of energy development say a new Montana-North Dakota high-voltage transmission line could be a game changer for an area of the American West that’s seen limited expansion to its power grid in four decades. The North Plains Connector Line would be the region’s first major grid expansion since the construction of a 500-kilovolt line that carries power from the Colstrip coal-fired power plant to population centers in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s.
Unruh added that the 525-kilovolt line has unlocked a $700 million federal Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership grant the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to Montana in August alongside $46 million the state has received for road, sewer and water services to support the connector’s workforce during construction.
NorthWestern is the fourth utility in the West to enter into an agreement for a portion of the line’s capacity.
The three utilities in the Pacific Northwest that have inked agreements with Grid United are Puget Sound Energy, Portland General Electric and Avista. They are expected to use the additional transmission capacity to move eastern Montana wind power to the northwest as they navigate an exit from Colstrip, the coal-fired power plant they co-own with NorthWestern and Talen, in order to comply with climate-related laws in Washington and Oregon.
NorthWestern has expanded its fossil fuel footprint in recent years with a new gas plant in Laurel that came online this fall and plans to acquire additional shares of the Colstrip plant.
Unruh said expanded transmission capacity will allow all of the aforementioned utilities to access expanded markets, regardless of the generation source those utilities have to offer.
North Plains’ developers have initiated the permitting process, which will be overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy. They anticipate that permits will be issued in 2026 and construction on the line will begin in 2028 with the goal of bringing the connector online in 2032.