North Plains Connector Consortium Announces: Approximately $695 Million Federal Grid Award Finalized, Transmission Project to Receive About $620 Million
The North Plains Connector Utility Consortium announced on October 22 that the approximately $695 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program to the Montana Department of Commerce, supporting the North Plains Connector Interregional Innovation project, has been finalized. Last week, federal and state officials, grid operators, utility companies and community partners gathered in Helena to mark the milestone.
The North Plains Connector transmission project will receive approximately $620 million as a subrecipient, primarily to fund the engineering and construction of the project's transmission towers, which will also help lower the overall project cost. The award also supports upgrades to the existing Colstrip Transmission System to improve regional grid resilience and reliability.
Governor Greg Gianforte and Katie Jereza, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Electricity, discussed the award's significance for Montana's energy future in a fireside chat at 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,' Gianforte said.
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, able to transport power in either direction and open to all generation sources. Consortium members include ALLETE, Avista, NorthWestern Energy, Portland General Electric and Puget Sound Energy, among ten utility companies in total.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 蒙大拿州议会大厦（Helena），作者 David Wilson，CC BY 2.0，来源 Wikimedia Commons
