by Anne Hedges
Over the last year, NorthWestern Energy has repeatedly refused to be transparent regarding its desire to serve electricity to energy-hungry AI data centers. The Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) has repeatedly said that NorthWestern must get its approval prior to energizing data centers, but NorthWestern has stalled. In April, NorthWestern finally submitted a proposal to the PSC referred to as a “large load tariff.” A large load tariff is essentially a set of rules that govern how a utility provides power to data centers. Quantica Infrastructure’s recent proposal of a nearly 9 gigawatt data center near Broadview highlights the urgency for a tariff with strong consumer protections. NorthWestern’s proposal is anything but protective.
NorthWestern sees data centers as a lucrative new revenue stream, but it insists on keeping secret all of its information regarding ongoing deals with data centers. The merger docket is a perfect example of this secrecy as it has refused to answer any questions regarding data centers and the PSC has allowed it to do so (see article on pg. 16). It appears that the hefty bonuses that NorthWestern executives will receive are enough of an incentive to hide the ball from Montanans regarding its data center plans; CEO Brian Bird alone is slated to receive a $13.6 million bonus for a successful merger.
NorthWestern’s proposed data center tariff would put it in the driver’s seat on nearly all decisions to serve data centers instead of the PSC. For example:
- It would allow NorthWestern to conceal all agreements with data centers from its existing customers.
- It fails to propose a separate rate class for data centers, which is the best guarantee that they pay all of the costs that they impose on NorthWestern’s system including expensive power plants, fuel costs, routine maintenance, outage costs, and transmission and distribution costs.
- It unfathomably (and illegally) allows NorthWestern to control agreements with data centers under 50 megawatts and avoid PSC and public review. It is increasingly apparent that NorthWestern will ask the Legislature to retroactively make this legal.
- The tariff has extremely vague, weak provisions that would allow developers to build large data center campuses in 49-megawatt increments in order to avoid PSC scrutiny and public oversight.
- NorthWestern would not be required to ask the PSC for permission to provide electricity to a data center until after it has signed contracts with the developer.
- It puts NorthWestern, not the PSC, in charge of deciding the level of financial assurance (e.g. bonds) that data center developers would provide in case they disappear before they pay their bills for such things as transmission lines or power plants, leaving customers to pick up the tab.
The list goes on.
If the PSC does its job, it will reject NorthWestern’s feeble proposal for a data center tariff. But the PSC has been delinquent in addressing MEIC’s two-year old request to include the cost of climate change in its regulation of utilities. It has failed to act on our November 2025 submittal for the PSC to create a detailed and protective tariff and separate rate class for data centers. And over our repeated objections, the PSC has allowed NorthWestern to keep secret all substantive information regarding its existing deals with data centers. (All of these actions were taken by Earthjustice on behalf of MEIC and a host of outstanding partner groups and businesses.)
NorthWestern Energy wants to serve 14 data centers that will need thousands of megawatts of electricity, dwarfing the 750 megawatt needs of its existing customers. It’s clear where the utility’s allegiance lies, and it’s not with existing customers. NorthWestern is dedicated to revenue generation and growth, and it sees data centers as providing both. The Montana Power Company had similar arguments when it convinced the Legislature to pass electric deregulation. We would be wise to heed the old proverb, “Fool me once, shame on thee; fool me twice, shame on me.”
This article was published in the June 2026 issue of Down To Earth.
