Why It Matters
NorthWestern Energy’s push to power data centers could mean higher electricity bills for Montana households. The state’s largest utility has signed agreements with at least three data centers in the past 18 months, with 11 more companies expressing interest. Consumer advocates warn that the 413,000 Montanans already served by NorthWestern — many still dealing with recent rate hikes — may end up paying for the power plants and transmission lines needed to serve these massive facilities.
What Happened
NorthWestern Energy shareholders view the data center partnerships as a major revenue opportunity. The facilities, which power artificial intelligence operations, cloud storage, and cryptocurrency mining, consume as much electricity as large cities and require substantial new infrastructure investments.
A coalition of consumer advocates and environmental groups has filed complaints with the Montana Public Service Commission, arguing that NorthWestern is conducting deals in secret and bypassing public oversight. The coalition claims the utility has short-circuited the public’s right to know how these agreements will affect ratepayers.
The concerns have drawn crowds to town hall meetings across Montana, from Broadview to Great Falls, as residents question whether they will bear the costs of infrastructure built primarily to serve corporate clients.
By the Numbers
413,000: Montana customers currently served by NorthWestern Energy
3: Data center agreements signed by NorthWestern in the last 18 months
11: Companies that have expressed interest in using NorthWestern electricity for data centers as of February
Billions: Estimated cost in dollars for infrastructure needed to power large data centers
Zoom Out
Montana is not alone in grappling with data center expansion. Utility watchdogs nationwide are raising similar concerns about the traditional utility business model, which was designed over a century ago to expand electricity service.
According to Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard, utilities profit by building infrastructure and are allowed to charge all customers for new power plants and transmission lines — even when those investments primarily serve a handful of large corporate clients like Google or Meta.
Peskoe co-authored a March 2025 paper titled “Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power,” examining how utilities in multiple states are using the traditional rate-setting model to socialize Big Tech’s infrastructure costs across their entire customer base.
What’s Next
The Montana Public Service Commission will continue reviewing the coalition’s complaint about transparency in NorthWestern’s data center agreements. Consumer advocates are pushing the all-Republican utility board to increase scrutiny of future deals and ensure Montanans are protected from bearing disproportionate infrastructure costs.
Meanwhile, NorthWestern Energy’s recent acquisition of 592 megawatts of coal-fired power from Colstrip suggests the utility is positioning itself to meet the massive electricity demands of data center operations.
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