Judith Gap, Montana wind farm operators: We’ll offer expanded power elsewhere in state

April 22, 2008

Operators of the Judith Gap wind-power project said Monday they’ll offer electricity from a proposed expansion to other Montana buyers, after being turned down by the state’s largest utility.

“It’s clean power produced in Montana,” said Doug Carter, senior vice president for Invenergy in Denver. “We think the other consumers in the state will look at this price and say, ‘We want this power.’” NorthWestern Energy, which buys the current output of power from Judith Gap, declined last week to buy power from Invenergy’s proposed expansion of the wind farm.

Carter said Invenergy plans to offer the power to other Montana electricity buyers, such as electric co-ops, or perhaps Avista Corp., a Spokane, Wash.-based utility with 350,000 customers in eastern Washington.

By Mike Dennison of The Standard State Bureau

Full Story: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/04/22/state_top/20080422_state_top.txt