We’re Energized For More Energy Development
The regional energy market assessment recently commissioned by GFDA found significant opportunities to increase energy production in the Great Falls safe area. Energy production increases supply options for local energy users, creates a stronger tax base, and creates higher wage career opportunities.
The national energy ecosystem is undergoing a structural shift driven by demand growth, changing regulatory and market frameworks, as well as an emphasis on domestic energy security.
With an exceptional natural resource base and large tracts of developable land, North Central Montana offers utility scale generation and industrial siting opportunities not available in more congested areas. The region sits within one of the strongest onshore wind corridors in North America and provides meaningful solar resources along with strategic access to major natural gas supply basins. Emerging baseload technologies such as enhanced geothermal may be viable in the region.
Montana is uniquely situated between the Western Interconnection and Eastern Interconnection of the grid and shares cross border transmission pathways into Canadian markets.
As demand for reliable, scalable power continues to grow, North Central Montana is poised to serve once again as both a generation hub and an energy transit corridor.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy
BHE Montana owns and operates 397.5 MW of wind generation, 75 MW of battery storage, and is planning a 130 MW solar farm for deployment in early 2027. The recent 75 MW of storage represents a $100 million dollar investment and provides critical grid support and reliability enhancement throughout the region. BHE built a 24/7 operations center to manage generation balancing from its renewable assets. BHE invested $1.4 million dollars in Great Falls College MSU to develop a first of is kind North American Reliability Corporation (NERC) certified training program.
BHE will join the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) in 2026, enabling real time balancing of electrical generation supply and demand. WEIM allows participating utilities and balancing authorities across the western United States to buy and sell power every five minutes. This enables the grid to automatically dispatch the lowest cost energy available across a vast geographic footprint, improving both economic efficiency and grid reliability.
Montana Renewables
Montana Renewables (MRL) is a leading producer of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in North America, with an annual production capacity of around 30 million gallons. As SAF demand continues to grow, MRL has a planned expansion to increase production up to 300 million gallons by 2028. The plant expansion in Great Falls was made possible by a Department of Energy loan guarantee of $1.67 billion dollars.
MRL is pioneering the renewable fuels industry. Their team of experts is developing patent pending technology for green hydrogen use in their conversion process to further lower the processing carbon footprint. SAF production process can use feedstocks such as used cooking oil, camelina oil, canola oil, tallow, distillers corn oil, and soybean oil. Today, MRL is producing enough SAF to fuel 40,000 flight hours, helping the global aviation sector meet its sustainability goals.
The MRL location in Great Falls is in the heart rich renewable feedstocks, ideal for receiving and delivering renewable products to market in the Northwest United States and Canada.
North Plains Connector
The North Plains Connector is a 420 mile, 525 kilovolt, high voltage direct current transmission line connecting the eastern and western U.S. electric grids in North Dakota and Montana. North Plains Connector will transport electrical power of all generation sources and bidirectionally move power along the line in response to demand.
The North Plains Connector will extend between an existing substation in Colstrip, Montana, to two separate connections in North Dakota – one near the town of Center, and the other near St. Anthony and is in the permitting and regulatory filing phase with approvals expected in 2026. Major construction activities are expected to commence in 2028, and the line is expected to be operational in 2032.
The North Plains Connector represents a $6 billion dollar investment in Montana and North Dakota.The project will improve grid resiliency and provide economic benefits through local tax revenue, landowner payments, and job creation.
View the 2024 Great Falls trade area energy market assessment reports below.
