Preparing Today for Tomorrow’s Power Needs
Change is inevitable. Planning is essential.
Our region continues to grow with more homes and businesses connecting to our system every day. That means we need more power.
Your Co-op knows that you depend on us to deliver you power at an affordable price and when you need it. To keep rates steady and reliable as our region grows, the Flathead Electric Cooperative Board of Trustees undergoes an ongoing long-term power planning process.
This planning process includes evaluating new generation and transmission resources as they are needed to meet future power needs and reliability requirements.
Why Now?
Building energy infrastructure takes 5–10 years, and large projects can have even longer timelines due to regulatory and supply chain challenges. Waiting increases the risk of higher costs, potential power shortages, and rushed decisions. Proactive planning is essential.
By acting now, we maintain:
- Local Control: We decide our future, rather than letting market purchases dictate our rates.
- Cost Certainty: Long-term agreements protect our members from price volatility and spikes seen during regional energy crunches.
- Reliability: Helps ensure we can deliver reliable power during peak times, especially during extreme weather.
Our approach to power planning is as vital as our wildfire mitigation strategy. We don’t just hope for the best; we use data-driven modeling and risk analysis to ensure our system remains as safe, affordable, and ready for anything as possible.
Our Energy Strategy: All-of-the-Above
Flathead Electric supports an all-of-the-above generation strategy. We are continually evaluating all available resource options that can meet our future power supply needs reliably, affordably, and responsibly. This means our staff and Trustees are analyzing a combination of:
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Renewables: We are investing in new renewable energy projects to meet future power supply needs, and have already invested in multiple projects and partnered on local generation projects, including:
- Biomass facility at F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company
- Landfill-gas-to-energy plant
- Community solar program
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Baseload Power: Because wind and solar are intermittent, we must maintain “dispatchable” resources (like hydropower, nuclear, and natural gas) that provide utility-scale, around-the-clock, dependable power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
- Hydropower
- PNGC Advanced Natural Gas Project (announced April 23, 2026)
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Future Tech: We are actively monitoring emerging tech (like long-duration battery storage and advanced nuclear) for when they become cost-effective and feasible at scale.
Read our Long-Range Power Supply Planning FAQs for additional information.
PNGC Advanced Natural Gas Project
On April 23, 2026, Flathead Electric Cooperative announced plans to participate in a new advanced natural gas generation facility, marking an important step toward maintaining a reliable and affordable power supply for its members into the future as regional demand for electricity continues to rise.
