U.S. federal stimulus money has been approved to help Montana Alberta Tie Ltd., a Canadian company, build a 215-mile power transmission line between the state and province in the firm’s name.
$161 million in Washington loan money will enable the cross-border transfer of wind-generated power, through a 230 kilovolt line that is to be built by late 2010.
Alberta is rich in fossil fuel resources—the Tar Sands in the northern part of the vast province have become a significant source of revenue for the government and boon to the local economy—but Alberta doesn’t generate as much electricity as it needs.
Alberta has a gap of 533 gigawatt hours between the power it imports from the U.S. and what it sends south. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is in charge of interstate transmission, has determined that the market opportunity that Alberta’s shortfall presents to American utilities in the wind-rich Big Sky region is worth allotting funds under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the "Stimulus Bill").
Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. is owned by Tonbridge Power, which trades on the Vancouver TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol TBZ.
-Sam Hopkins
