Matthew Stoltz is a native of Bismarck ND. He is an Electric Engineer with over 36 years of experience in high-voltage power system planning, analysis, and operations. He is currently under contract with Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative (MWEC) in Williston, ND as a Transmission System Engineer. His main responsibility is to ensure that MWEC’s transmission system will be adequate to serve the electric needs of the rapidly growing Bakken oil and gas industry.

Prior to MWEC, Matthew was employed by Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC) in Bismarck ND for twenty years and managed the transmission system planning group. BEPC is the parent co-op of MWEC and others and is responsible for generation and transmission of power that MWEC distributes. A notable achievement for Matthew’s group at BEPC was planning, designing, and directing upgrades that increased the Bakken transmission system capacity from 200MW to over 1500MW in 10 years.

Matthew was part of the BEPC team responsible for integration of BEPC into the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Regional Transmission Organization in 2015. SPP and other Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO) are responsible for coordination of power supply across the US.

Matthew began his career at Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) where he worked in the project development and transmission planning functions. He has also held numerous leadership functions over the years including Chairmanship of the Colorado Coordinated Planning Group and the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool Transmission Planning Subcommittee.

He received a Distinguished Service Award in North Dakota in 2018 and provided testimony to the North Dakota Public Service Commission on several occasions. He presented technical reports to the Minnesota Power System Conference on two occasions. He was a co-author of a paper titled “Eastern and Western Interconnections Seam Study” that was submitted to the worldwide Conseil International des Grands Reseaux Electriques (Council of Large Electric Systems or CIGRE).

Matthew is a graduate of North Dakota State University, and a Colorado registered Professional Engineer.