NorthWestern provides electricity and natural gas to 668,300 customers in 349 cities in the western two-thirds of Montana, eastern South Dakota and central Nebraska.
It will use the FullMAX broadband wireless system to communicate with intelligent network devices including capacitor bank controllers, reclosers, voltage regulators and voltage sensors distributed along remote transmission and distribution electrical lines.
The company will initially install FullMAX in Philipsburg, Montana, and is part of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project coordinated by the Battelle Memorial Institute.
The company manages about 30,500 miles of electrical transmission and distribution lines and 9,375 miles of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines and storage facilities.
The company said FullMAX base station radios are capable of creating wide area coverage up to 2,800 square miles from a single tower site.
