A Midwestern utility and an independent transmission company are teaming up to build a first-of-its-kind line that would span across the Western and Eastern interconnections and through three different electric regions.
ALLETE (NYSE:ALE), a Minnesota-based energy company, and Grid United, a competitive transmission developer, announced their plans this week to build the North Plains Connector, a roughly 385-mile HVDC transmission line between North Dakota and Montana.
The developers say their project would be the first transmission connection between three “regional U.S. electric energy markets”: MISO, SPP and the Western Interconnection. It would create 3,000 MW of transfer capacity between the regions.
SPP spokesperson Meghan Sever said that Grid United has been conducting a feasibility study on several transmission projects with the grid operator’s staff and the Transmission Working Group, the scope of which was approved in September.
“Several merchant HVDC developers have approached SPP about projects in various stages of development. As with every project, SPP follows our stakeholder-approved study practices when evaluating the impacts of these projects on the SPP system,” Sever said.
The project is still in the development stage, with permitting expected to start this year and a planned in-service date of 2029. Its unique nature has captured attention from the energy world, earning praise for its ambitious goals to connect the regions.
Grid United is run by Michael Skelly, a prominent clean energy executive whose past portfolio includes building transmission and wind projects at Clean Line Energy and Horizon Wind Energy.
“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,” Skelly said in a statement.
ALLETE owns utilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as energy production subsidiaries in North Dakota, Minnesota and Maryland. Its CEO and president, Bethany Owen, called the project “innovative” and said its an “important step toward a resilient and reliable energy grid across a wide area of the country.”
The collaboration between a utility and an independent transmission company is also an innovative part of the project that energy experts have called out.
“It’s starting!” tweeted Rob Gramlich, an energy consultant and former FERC official. He predicted that “joint ventures, joint ownership and joint [transmission companies] will join forces to build infrastructure, serve specific utility load and upsize to serve wider market demand.”
