Community attends open houses for Basin Electric’s transmission project

On April 22-23, Basin Electric hosted two open houses for landowners, community members, and other interested parties to learn about the proposed Pioneer-to-Patent Gate 345-kilovolt (kV) transmission line project.

The open houses — held in Alexander, North Dakota, and Williston, North Dakota — were an opportunity to share information and gather input on the proposed project, which includes approximately 50 miles of new high‑voltage transmission line between the Pioneer Generation Station substation near Williston, North Dakota, and the Patent Gate substation near Arnegard, North Dakota.

“Basin Electric’s right-of-way team did an excellent job meeting with landowners and introducing this project throughout the routing and surveying process. However, these project open houses presented an opportunity for community members to meet the entire project team and get detailed information on engineering and design, right-of-way and construction, permitting, transmission planning, and more,” Bobby Nasset, Basin Electric civil engineering supervisor, said.

“These open houses are also an important forum for Basin Electric to receive feedback from community members and other public stakeholders on the project,” Nasset added. “In this case, the meetings were also attended by Basin Electric members of Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Cooperative, McKenzie Electric Cooperative, and Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative. 

Nasset said Basin Electric will continue to host open houses for upcoming projects as part of the process to select final route corridor that best meets project needs while incorporating input from the communities it serves.

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has approved the project through its 2024 Integrated Transmission Planning study process. In 2025, SPP issued Basin Electric an Approved Reliability Network upgrade notice, designating Basin Electric as the designated transmission owner for the project. 

At this early stage, a study area with preliminary routes has been developed, but a final route has not been established. Construction of the transmission line and substation work is scheduled to begin in 2029 and is expected to take approximately 12 months. 

Learn more about the project.