Last week, members of the North Plains Connector Utility Consortium gathered alongside federal and state officials, grid operators, community partners, and project stakeholders in Helena, Montana. The event commemorated the finalizing of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program award to the Montana Department of Commerce for the North Plains Connector Interregional Innovation project.

The approximately $695 million GRIP award represents a federal investment in the future of the grid, building on Montana’s established role in the region’s transmission landscape. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Katie Jereza reflected on the importance of the award for Montana’s energy future in a fireside chat during the Helena forum.

“When this comes into production, North Plains Connector, it’s going to be utility-owned. This GRIP grant really means that we’re getting extensive transmission capability without burdening the electric consumer,” said Governor Gianforte during the event. “It really offsets those costs, and I think that’s an important part of the economic equation here and why this is so important.”

By supporting both the interregional North Plains Connector transmission line and upgrades to the existing Colstrip Transmission System, the GRIP award helps enable the grid system needed to deliver resiliency and reliability benefits across the region. The North Plains Connector transmission project will receive approximately $620 million as a subrecipient to the Montana Department of Commerce. This subaward will primarily fund the engineering and construction of the project’s transmission towers, and importantly, help to lower the overall project cost.

The Helena gathering celebrated a major milestone for North Plains Connector and the collaborative effort among government, industry, and community partners that made the award possible. The North Plains Connector Utility Consortium looks forward to building on this multi-stakeholder momentum as the project moves into late stage-development and toward construction.

— North Plains Connector Utility Consortium: ALLETE Inc., Avista, BHE U.S. Transmission, Great River Energy, MDU Resources subsidiary Montana-Dakota Utilities, Minnkota Power Cooperative, NorthWestern Energy, Otter Tail Power Company, Portland General Electric, Puget Sound Energy

About North Plains Connector

North Plains Connector is an approximately 420-mile, 525-kilovolt, high-voltage direct current transmission line connecting the western and eastern electric grids in Montana and North Dakota. North Plains Connector will be open to electrical power from all generation sources and will be able to transport power in either direction along the line. For more information, visit northplainsconnector.com.

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