The North Plains Connector Utility Consortium endorses the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2026 National Transmission Needs Study and its clear recognition of the critical role interregional transmission will play in meeting America’s growing electricity demands. The study reinforces what utilities and grid planners are increasingly seeing firsthand: long-term transmission investment is essential to maintaining reliability and delivering power where and when it is needed most.
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As electricity demand continues to rise and regional grid constraints become more pronounced, interregional transmission offers one of the most cost effective and flexible solutions. The Transmission Needs Study notes interregional transmission has “the highest potential value to relieve transmission congestion and provide resource adequacy benefits.” By increasing transfer capability between regions and improving access to diverse energy resources, interregional projects like North Plains Connector can enhance grid stability, optimize the use of generation and transmission assets across multiple markets, strengthen reliability, and improve system resilience. Connecting regions enables utilities to share resources more efficiently, respond more effectively to changing system conditions, and deliver affordable and reliable electricity to businesses and residential customers.
The Consortium is particularly encouraged that the study identifies North Plains Connector as a transmission solution capable of addressing future capacity and reliability needs. As the study notes, North Plains Connector can provide value by “enabling cross-interconnection power transactions with generation resources that experience different weather patterns,” allowing regions to share resources more efficiently and respond more effectively to changing system conditions. By connecting markets that currently operate in isolation, the project can strengthen reliability, improve system resilience, optimize the use of existing generation and transmission assets, and deliver long-term benefits to utilities, customers, and the broader electric system.
- 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, Portland General Electric, Puget Sound Energy
About North Plains Connector: North Plains Connector is an approximately 420-mile and up-to-525 kilovolt high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line connecting the eastern and western electric grids in Montana and North Dakota. North Plains Connector will be open to all sources of electrical power generation and will be able to transport power in either direction along the line. For more information, visit www.northplainsconnector.com.
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