ABOUT US

Montana Alberta Tie Ltd.

Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. (MATL) is a Calgary-based company undertaking to build and operate a 300-MW, 230-kV power transmission line that will interconnect the electricity markets of Alberta and Montana. It will be the first power transmission line between Alberta and Montana. MATL started work in 2004.

This project requires the approval of national and provincial regulators in Canada, and national and state regulators in the United States. After a thorough review of the environmental, economic and system impacts of the transmission line, MATL has received a Permit to Construct and a License to Operate from the Alberta Energy Utilities Board, a Permit from the Canadian National Energy Board, an approved Tariff from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a Path Rating from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project and are expected to issue decisions on the project in the fall of 2008.

The MATL line will provide much needed new power transmission capacity in Alberta and Montana. In recent decades, there has been very little transmission line development in North America while the population, economy and power demand have swelled. As an intertie, the MATL line will reinforce the reliability of the continental transmission grid. Montana-based wind energy projects have contracted full capacity on the line.

A merchant power transmission line is different from a traditional utility-built, rate-based line. It is like a toll highway in that the line is constructed entirely with private funds and only the users pay for it. It sells capacity, or space on the line, at market rates to shippers wanting to move power. Hence, the MATL line provides increased capacity and improved system reliability to Alberta and Montana at no cost to the public.

Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. (MATL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tonbridge Power Inc.