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Big Sky Electrical Substation & Infrastructure  Meetings

Brought to you by NorthWestern Energy and the Burton K. Wheeler Center.

Dear Big Sky Community Member,

 

As you know, earlier this year, NorthWestern Energy concluded its analysis of the available sites and technology options for the substation needed to provide reliable service to the expanding Big Sky community.  Based on the feedback and recommendations from the community, as well as their own analysis, in late July NorthWestern announced the selection of the Rainham site and the use of a low-profile design for the facility.  

 

In an effort to keep the community up-to-date with the on-going process, we want to let you know that on Friday, September 28th, NorthWestern submitted application materials for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and the owners of the proposed Rainham site submitted a Zone Map Amendment (zoning change) to Gallatin County.  

 

The next step will be for the Big Sky Advisory Committee (BSAC) to review both applications and provide comments and recommendations to the Gallatin County Planning & Zoning Commission. The Planning and Zoning Commission will then take that feedback into consideration as a part of their own review of each application.  Following that review, the Planning & Zoning Commission will have the authority to make a final decision on the CUP application. For the zoning amendment, the Planning & Zoning Commission will forward the results of its review to the Gallatin County Commission, which then has the final authority for its approval.  It is also important to note that because all three County Commissioners sit on the Planning & Zoning Commission, it is typical for them run the portion of the hearing related to the zoning amendment as a joint meeting between the Planning & Zoning and County Commissions. 

 

Based on the published meeting schedules of the BSAC and both Commissions, we expect the applications to move forward on the following timeline:  

 

October – Gallatin County staff and agency will review and comment on both applications

November 5 – BSAC will meet and review of both applications

November 8 – Planning & Zoning public hearing on both applications. Joint County Commission and Planning & Zoning hearing for zoning amendment

November 20 or 27th – 2nd reading of zoning resolution before the County Commission and possible vote

 

Please keep in mind that this timeline is tentative.  If you are interested in attending any of these meetings, please visit the Gallatin County website for official schedules and agendas.

Phase 2 Executive Summary

October 3, 2017

With the final, community-wide meeting on August 29th, the first stage of the public engagement process is complete. No decision either about the final site for the substation or the technology to be used has been made. 

 

Feedback from the community about the decision making process leading up to the public engagement project revealed that many community members had concerns about: 

 

• The thoroughness of and criteria for identification and selection of the substation site

 

• The potential impacts of the design, construction and technology used for the substation on neighboring landowners, wildlife and the community as a whole, and/or 

• The transparency, thoroughness and fairness of the entire substation siting and design process. 

 

Based on that feedback and before any site and design decisions will be made, Northwestern Energy has extended their research and assessment efforts, and committed to: 

• See the analysis process through for both sites (Rainham and Midway), and communicate the results of that analysis to the community

 

• Adding wildlife and noise analyses to both sites, complete Rainham assessment to match Midway analysis in scope, and verify placement and view impacts, complete assessment of transmission and distribution line placement

• Develop accurate renderings of both sites and including images from specific locations identified by community members (i.e. key visibility points for affected landowners and community members)

• Complete assessments of site designs, technology and construction options. This will include a thorough analysis of GIS feasibility and implications (e.g. operations and maintenance), other construction details (e.g. line placement, other view mitigation issues)

 

• Continue with community engagement focused on developing a cost recovery plan, 

 

Anticipated Timeline: 

• Visit the Snowmass, Holy Cross GIS substation to learn more about the technology, design and community processes used for that facility (Complete on September 12, 2017).

 

• Complete and thorough analysis of both sites, including any consideration of data received through our community outreach efforts (Fall 2017 - Winter 2018) 

• Assess technical and financial feasibility of GIS for this substation project (Late 2017/Early 2018). 

• Determine GIS feasibility within NWE’s system. 

• Key stakeholder process to identify and develop a community supported proposal to pay incremental costs of a GIS substation 

• This will include approval by the regulator regarding cost comparisons, who pays additional costs, and potential rate structures 

• Final Site Selection (Early Summer 2018) 

• Conditional Use Permit Application (Mid Summer 2018)

March 2018

Please see the supporting documents page of this website for updated documents and communication from NorthWestern Energy. The latest letter sent to residents and emailed out 3/9/2018 to those on our email list is available on this website for viewing.

December 15, 2017

We want to provide a quick acknowledgment and update on the outage that occurred at the Meadow Village Substation the afternoon of the Christmas Stroll.  A weasel was able to enter the substation and made contact with equipment, causing the outage which affected nearly 2400 customers.  Fortunately, NorthWestern personnel were able to restore service rather quickly,  but had this been a failure of a large piece of equipment, such as a breaker or a transformer, the outage could have been much longer. 

 

This incident underscores the importance of successfully siting and constructing a new Mid-Mountain substation, which will increase reliability of service to all customers NorthWestern serves in the Big Sky area.  As we indicated in our email just before Thanksgiving, NorthWestern is continuing to evaluate siting and technology options for the Mid-Mountain substation and is committed to continuing the stakeholder process we started this past summer.

Attention:

If you are not already receiving email updates and would like to, please email us at bigskysubstation@gmail.com and we will add you to our contact list. Be sure to add bigskysubstation@gmail.com to your approved sender list to ensure our messages do not go to your spam folder. 

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