Montana-Alberta Tie Limited Project

At the Cascade County Historical Society museum in Great Falls, Mont., on Nov. 30, 2009, history was made as Administrator Tim Meeks joined Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer in celebrating the beginning of the Montana-Alberta Transmission Line —the first project Western has selected to use Recovery Act funds to deliver wind energy into the grid.  The project crosses international borders and brings together many international stakeholders, it brings together Congress’ goals of stimulating the economy and creating jobs, and Western’s goals to support renewables and improve energy infrastructure. MATL serves as an excellent example of how Federal and private partners can work together.

MATL connects economics and jobs by:

• providing the financing arrangement between Montana Alberta Tie Ltd.    and Enbridge  —the Canadian project developers—and Western. The $161 million of Western’s borrowing authority under the Recovery Act was finalized Oct. 27, 2009. Total project costs are estimated to be $213 million.
• building transmission lines located on U.S. soil, about two-thirds, or 133 miles, of the 214-mile long transmission line.
• improving the U.S. job market because the project will be constructed by a U.S. workforce using U.S.-produced materials within the provisions of the “Buy American Clause.”
• using the local job market to complete construction, which is expected to create dozens of jobs.
• creating hundreds of additional jobs for workers to build wind farms near Cut Bank, Mont., and across the region.
• allowing millions of dollars worth of MATL’s Green Tags to be sold domestically.

 Connecting to renewable energy by:

• building the lines to enhance development of wind in Montana.
  • Once energized in mid-2012, MATL will bring new transmission capacity online to support 300 to 600 MW of wind energy—enough to power 150,000 to 300,000 homes, serving up to a million with renewable energy.
    

Transmission Facts

• The project will extend northward from an existing NorthWestern Energy 230-kV switchyard at Great Falls to a new substation northeast of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
  
  
• The transmission lines will have enough capacity to deliver 300 MW in either direction.

Western will own 1/12 or 18 miles of the line and a conditional right to 50 MW of southbound capacity. The right to the 50 MW of southbound capacity is subject to pre-existing arrangements with current interconnection customers. Western has a right to a future 50 MW of northbound capacity if MATL is uprated to 550 MW.

Western senior managers, Tonbridge and other dignitaries celebrate the groundbreaking of the Montana Alberta Transmission Line Project at a ceremony Nov. 30 in Great Falls, Mont.