ALLETE, Grid United to collaborate on North Plains Connector, linking central North Dakota grid to Montana

Under a new partnership between ALLETE, Inc. and Grid United, an approximately 385-mile high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line will be built to connect three regional electric energy markets and join the central North Dakota region with Colstrip, Mont.

In all, this collaboration should yield 3,000 MW of transfer capacity amid the country, which the companies intend to increase resilience/reliability and reduce overall congestion on the transmission system. This should also boost fast sharing of energy resources for those operating in the region under the energy markets known as the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the Western Interconnection, and the Southwest Power Pool.

“Additional investment in transmission is critically important to achieve a clean-energy future and is a key part of our ‘Sustainability-in-Action’ growth strategy as our national footprint expands,” Bethany Owen, ALLETE chair, president and CEO, said. “This innovative project is an important step toward a resilient and reliable energy grid across a wide area of the country and ties into important transmission projects being developed in the Upper Midwest and the Western Interconnection.”

The North Plains Connector is still currently in development, as Grid United treats with landowners and stakeholders to assess the best route forward. Permitting is, however, predicted to begin this year. Pending regulatory approvals, Grid United and ALLETE said they predict an in-service date of 2029.

Together, the companies will pump approximately $2.5 billion into the investment but gain a long-term asset for themselves and for the affected states in turn.

“We are delighted to work with ALLETE on the North Plains Connector,” Michael Skelly, Grid United CEO, said. “ALLETE’s superior track record of energy development in the Upper Midwest makes them the ideal partner to support this project through development into operations. It is no secret that the U.S. is in desperate need of new electric transmission capacity, and the North Plains Connector will provide resiliency and reliability benefits for decades to come.”

While the two companies are currently operating on a memorandum of understanding, they plan to execute a development agreement later this year. Once that process is underway, ALLETE intends to push for at least a 35 percent ownership stake in the project and intends to oversee its operations.