NorthWestern Energy Group is a vertically-integrated utility company that generates, transmits, and distributes electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers across Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Yellowstone National Park. The company operates as a rate-regulated utility whose revenue model relies on regulatory cost-recovery mechanisms set by state public utility commissions, including base rates, fuel and purchased power trackers, and transmission rates that are designed to recover operating costs plus a reasonable return on invested capital. NorthWestern generates revenue through retail electric and gas sales to hundreds of thousands of customers, transmission and wholesale activities, and pursues modernization of its aging distribution and transmission infrastructure to maintain reliability and support smart grid development.