Our Projects

We understand that our customers' needs are constantly changing and the energy industry is constantly evolving. We are working on several major projects that will help us continue to serve safe and reliable energy well into the future.

We continue to focus on investments to address aging infrastructure, enhance reliability of our system, add capacity, and meet compliance requirements. In 2020, we spent $403.3 million on capital projects replacing existing assets and adding new assets to our system in order to enhance and maintain our energy system. This level of investment was up approximately 24% over 2019.

Yellowstone County Generating Station

Yellowstone County Generating Station will provide on‑demand resources to support the variability of wind and solar projects coming onto our system and help serve our customers during extended periods of peak demand.

Montana Meter Upgrade

NorthWestern Energy will install 590,000 new electric meters and gas modules in Montana, which will help improve service reliability.

South Dakota Natural Gas Expansion

NorthWestern Energy is excited to bring commercial and residential natural gas service to the Tea and Harrisburg areas. We are proud to be a part of these communities and to be the trusted regional supplier to the area.

Billings Rimrock Substation Rebuild

The Rimrock Substation upgrade is a $34 million project to increase capacity to provide service for increased energy demand in the Billings area.

Montana LED Lighting

We're replacing 43,000 NorthWestern Energy-owned streetlights in Montana with LED lights. LEDs use 50% less electricity than traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights.

Missoula City Substation Rebuild

This rebuild will provide improved reliability and increased capacity necessary to serve the growing areas of downtown and the university district into the future.

Big Sky Master Plan

Big Sky is a growing community, and NorthWestern Energy has a long-range plan to keep up with that growth.

Mystic 50 kV line rebuild

NorthWestern Energy will rebuild about 5.3 miles of one of the two parallel 50 kV transmission lines from the Mystic Lake Dam powerhouse to the Line Creek switchyard.