Montana Committee Advances Draft Bill to Shield Ratepayers From Data Center Costs

✓What's documented Reports on-record committee testimony and a unanimous voice vote by Montana's Energy and Technology Interim Committee, plus on-record pushback from NorthWestern Energy's counsel.

Montana's Energy and Technology Interim Committee unanimously advanced a draft bill barring utilities from shifting the cost of data center infrastructure onto residential ratepayers, teeing it up for the 2027 Legislature. The bill would have the Public Service Commission create a separate customer class for large loads and require financial guarantees in case a data center leaves after a utility has built to serve it. NorthWestern Energy, the state's largest utility, supports the underlying protections but objects to language it says makes zero cost-shifting an unrealistic standard.

• Applies to new retail customers drawing at least 5 megawatts a month, a threshold aimed squarely at data centers.
• Requires the PSC to set terms preventing cost shifts to other customers and to demand financial guarantees against a data center exiting mid-buildout.
• NorthWestern Energy says it is in talks with at least 11 data center developers and already has a competing large-load proposal pending before the PSC.
• Committee chair Sen. Daniel Zolnikov said the bill's core principle is that buildout risk sits with the utility and the data center using the power, not residential customers.