By Nick Fitzmaurice
Last summer, NorthWestern Energy requested permission from the Public Service Commission (PSC) to once again dramatically increase electricity rates for its customers. Included in this request are a 26% increase to base electricity rates, over $2.3 billion in lifetime costs for the Yellowstone County Generating Station (YCGS) methane gas plant, and a blank check for certain near-future investments into the dirty and unreliable Colstrip plant that could well exceed $2 billion. MEIC immediately intervened in that case, thanks to our legal partners at Earthjustice. Since that time, intervening parties, including MEIC, have questioned NorthWestern’s data and filed extensive expert testimony. This is all more or less part of standard rate case proceedings as the various parties gather and refute information by various deadlines. March 24 was the deadline for the filing of a settlement agreement, which frustratingly, is often how these rate cases are decided.
For instance, in NorthWestern’s last rate case, a settlement agreement between NorthWestern and a few of the intervenors slightly reduced NorthWestern’s requested overall revenue increase across rate classes, but it increased the amount amount borne by residential customers. This bumped up the monthly bill increase for the residential customer class from 25% to 28%. These are black-box agreements that rarely include environmental, residential, or small business interests. This time around, if an agreement is filed, there will at least be an opportunity for intervenors who weren’t included in the settlement to submit further questions on the record regarding the settlement. In the end, the PSC has the final say in whether to accept or deny fully or in part any settlement agreement, but they nearly always accept these agreements with little-to-no changes.
The final milestone of the rate case before the PSC’s deliberations will be a public multi-day hearing beginning April 22 and continuing for up to two weeks. A final decision from the PSC is expected sometime this summer; however, NorthWestern’s last rate case didn’t receive a final order until six months after the public hearing, so anything is possible.
With the rate case hearing approaching quickly, MEIC will be hosting a webinar on April 8 at 12 pm mountain time, where a couple of our expert witnesses will give an overview of the costs and risks surrounding the Colstrip coal plant and YCGS gas plant, and the savings that could accrue to customers by moving toward clean energy. There will be time for questions.
An Interim Win!
On November 26, 2024, the Public Service Commission agreed with MEIC and voted to protect ratepayers by rejecting a $58 million attempted money grab for NorthWestern Energy which would have allowed unjustified rate recovery associated with the supposed “market benefits” of the YCGS methane gas plant: “The Commission finds that the proposed bridge rate does not reflect YCGS’s actual costs and would result in a significant over-charge to customers.” While this was a small win amid NorthWestern’s larger rate case, it is worth celebrating. As a result, beginning December 1, 2024, electric rates were projected to decrease by 7.24% (about $8 per month) until the PSC makes a final order in the rate case. On Jan. 3, 2025, the PSC reaffirmed this decision, voting to deny NorthWestern’s motion for reconsideration.
See MEIC’s website as well as December and October issues of Down to Earth for more information about NorthWestern’s rate case.
This article was published in the March 2025 issue of Down To Earth.
