The Gordon Butte Pumped Storage Project is a planned pumped hydroelectric storage facility that will be located in Martinsdale, Montana. The facility will be owned and operated by Absaroka Energy, which submitted a license application for the project to the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency that regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity and natural gas in interstate commerce and regulates the transportation of oil by pipeline in ...

in 2015. The agency approved the request in December 2016, following a September decision of no environmental impact, granting Absaroka a 50-year license to operate Gordon Butte. Gordon Butte will be located on a site, and will have access to water from Cottonwood Creek, a tributary of the

Musselshell River The Musselshell River is a tributary of the Missouri River, long from its origins at the confluence of its North and South Forks near Martinsdale, Montana to its mouth on the Missouri River. It is located east of the Continental divide entire ...

. The facility will operate as a closed-loop system, without actively drawing or discharging water into the watershed. It will have a 4,000 acre-foot capacity reservoir, located above the base, with a power generation capacity of about 400 MW. According to Absaroka, construction was planned to begin in 2018 or later, after design and engineering work is completed and financing is obtained. The construction cost is projected to be $986 million, and once in operation the annual operating cost will be $173 million to generate power with an estimated value of $220 million. In 2019 Danish investment group

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S ("CIP") is an investment firm specializing in infrastructure investments, particularly wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a ...

made a significant equity investment in the project which was thought to allow construction to begin in 2020. As of 2020, construction was estimated to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2029.

References

{{coord missing, Montana Hydroelectric power plants in Montana Buildings and structures in Meagher County, Montana Pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations in the United States