PPL Montana’s Mystic Lake Dam in the headwaters of the Yellowstone River watershed has become the first hydroelectric facility in the nation to receive a renewed operating license under a new federal method that seeks a collaborative, community-based approach to the relicensing process.

Issued just one year after its application was filed with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the license will allow PPL Montana to produce power at Mystic Dam through December 2049.

“Embracing FERC’s Integrated Licensing Process helped bring together the public, resource agencies, elected officials and PPL Montana right away and establish ways to resolve any concerns about the relicensing process early on, resulting in timely, effective and better-informed decisions,” said Jon Jourdonnais, director of Hydro Licensing and Compliance for PPL Montana.

“The process also helped us demonstrate our company’s commitment to generating clean, renewable energy and environmental and cultural stewardship not just at Mystic, but at all 11 of our hydroelectric facilities in Montana,” Jourdonnais said.

FERC’s Integrated Licensing Process required measures to protect and enhance fisheries, wildlife, habitat, water quality, recreation, cultural resources, public safety and aesthetics around Mystic Dam. The plant is surrounded by the rugged snow capped peaks of the Beartooth Mountains and the Custer National Forest, including the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area that supports diverse aquatic, fisheries and wildlife resources and unique geological features.

Throughout the relicensing process, PPL Montana has maintained a Web site, www.mysticlakeproject.com, which is updated with news, documents and meeting agendas, and summaries for the key stakeholders in the relicensing project, including fisheries, wildlife, cultural, recreation and other public organizations that are affected by operations at Mystic.

“We have a responsibility to the people of Montana to protect river resources, which is why we have committed substantial financial resources over the next decade for recreation, fisheries, water quality, wildlife, habitat and cultural resource enhancements on the Montana river systems we use to generate electric power,” Jourdonnais said.
 
Relicensing is part of the life of every hydroelectric power plant. Every 30 to 50 years, power companies that use dams to produce energy must seek renewal of their licenses from the federal government. FERC issues and oversees operating licenses for about 2,500 hydropower dams across the country.

Built in 1925, the Mystic facility is on the West Rosebud Creek in the Beartooth Mountains, about 75 miles southwest of Billings, Mont.

PPL has 500 employees in Montana who generate and sell electricity. PPL Montana operates coal-fired power plants at Colstrip and Billings, as well as 11 hydroelectric plants along West Rosebud Creek and the Missouri, Madison, Clark Fork and Flathead rivers. It has a combined generating capacity of more than 1,200 megawatts and has offices in Billings, Butte and Helena. PPL EnergyPlus operates a trading floor in Butte that markets and sells power in the wholesale and retail energy market. PPL Montana and PPL EnergyPlus are subsidiaries of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL).