Six U.S. utilities have come together to launch the Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG), tasked with improving overall operation and expansion of the high-voltage transmission network that delivers power to consumers in five Western states. The new group covers the transmission system in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Led by a steering committee of senior utility executives and state agency officials, NTTG member utilities are Deseret Power Electric Cooperative, Idaho Power, Northwestern Energy, PacifiCorp and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. NTTG held the first in an ongoing series of stakeholder working meetings on Jan. 30-31.

NTTG is organized around three work agendas: improving available transmission capacity, expediting “actionable” planning for transmission grid expansion and collaborating on control-area operations. In fact, several NTTG members in conjunction with the British Columbia Transmission Corp. have developed a detailed plan for sharing key control-area operations. Recently the Western Electricity Coordinating Council and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff reviewed the plan.