Montana-Dakota Utilities: Miles City Project

Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. (Montana-Dakota) proposes to undertake the following work (Project) to create a redundant power source for Miles City:

  • Construct a new 8.3-acre Montana-Dakota-owned substation.  The new substation would be located on property owned by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
  • Remove 4.2 miles of existing 60 kilovolt (kV) transmission line.
  • Construct 1 mile of new 60 kV transmission line.  A small portion of this transmission line would be located on ARS property.  The remainder of this transmission line would be located on Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MT FWP) property.
  • Construct 4.2 miles of new 115kV transmission line which would replace an existing 60 kV line.  The majority (3.7 miles) of the new 115kV transmission line would be placed within the existing 60 kV project right-of-way (ROW).  The remaining 0.5 miles of new 115 kV line would be in new ROW on ARS property. A portion of this transmission line would be built on property owned by the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  The new transmission line would tie into WAPA’s existing Miles City 2 Substation.  The Miles City 2 Substation is also located on Federal property.

WAPA’S Involvement

If there is available transmission capacity on the federal transmission system, WAPA provides open access to transmission services so that energy producers can transmit power to their customers.  Any entity requesting transmission services must submit an application for interconnection.  Montana-Dakota has submitted an Application for Interconnection to WAPA.  The application is for a new 115kV Point of Interconnection at WAPA’s Miles City 2 Substation.  WAPA’s action is to consider and respond to Montana-Dakota’s interconnection request in accordance with the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Tariff (WAPA is a member of SPP) and the Federal Power Act.  If WAPA grants Montana-Dakota’s interconnection request, WAPA would also need to install a variety of electrical equipment (a circuit breaker, disconnect switches, take-off structures, transformers, bus/control/protection equipment, and capacitor) within the existing Miles City 2 Substation.  The federal interconnection process is separate​ from any State, County, or local permitting and approvals that may be required.

​The proposed interconnection of the Project to WAPA’s transmission system is a Federal action under NEPA.  As a result, a Environmental Assessment (EA) was prepared to evaluate the environmental effects of the Project.

Final Environmental Documents

Contact Information

Western Area Power Administration
UGP NEPA Coordinator
2900 4th Avenue North
Billings, MT 59101-1266
(406) 255-2811​
nepa@wapa.gov

Last modified on November 8th, 2024