Upper Missouri G. & T. Electric Cooperative, Inc., doing business as Upper Missouri Power Cooperative, was organized in 1957 and incorporated in 1958 to serve transmission needs of rural electric cooperatives in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Today, Upper Missouri supplies wholesale electricity to 11 distribution cooperatives: six in eastern Montana and five in western North Dakota. The 11 Member Systems serve 79,292 meters to farms, ranches, homes, and businesses in 37 counties, covering 54,762 square miles.
Upper Missouri sources power from two major suppliers: Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) and Basin Electric Power Cooperative. In 2023, energy purchased from WAPA represented 2.46% of total sales and Basin was 97.54%, respectively.
Upper Missouri administers the transmission delivery metering services for most of its service area. There are currently 239 delivery points used in the billing of its members. Upper Missouri also uses these delivery meters to provide high accuracy real-time data to Basin.
Upper Missouri is rate-regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and continues to have high-volume sales growth due to the oil/gas development in the Bakken region, with a peak load of 1,897 MW. Energy sales in 2023 totaled 13,890,115 MWh. Sales in 2023 were 18.61% above 2022 sales and continued growth is projected to continue over the next decade.