Groups challenge Montana PSC order that keeps data center info secret

Public interest groups on Wednesday challenged the rationale behind redactions made in the letters of intent signed by NorthWestern Energy and data center developers.

The agreements made with developers in Silver Bow and Yellowstone counties share few details — even less information than the utility has publicly disclosed in other areas.

“Allowing NorthWestern to make secret deals with data center developers harms the public and could shift costs to residential ratepayers,” the public interest groups’ memorandum stated. “NorthWestern is not just another private company, it is an investor-owned, monopoly public utility that most Montanans have no choice but to buy electricity from. It should be harder, not easier, for such a company to hide information from the public.”

NorthWestern did not respond to requests for comment by press time Wednesday.

The motion challenges a protective order issued by the Public Service Commission in December to hide NorthWestern’s assessed “confidentiality.” The order was granted by the regulatory body after the PSC requested documents and information from NorthWestern about the utility’s plans to serve large load data centers. Those documents were needed to “inform the commission's oversight responsibilities,” the PSC stated.

However, NorthWestern refused to share the letters of intent with the public to ensure confidential information and trade secrets were protected. The utility requested the order to protect the information back in September.

After the order was granted, the public was only able to see brief sentences in the redacted letters of intent.

In Quantica Infrastructure’s letter of intent, it states under a section titled "Proposal" that “Quantica desires to develop a data center campus in Montana.” It is then followed by several black lines, mirroring other letters of intent.

Yet, as the memo noted, information had already been revealed publicly by NorthWestern even after they asked for the redactions.

While the redacted letter didn’t reveal when NorthWestern might connect to Quantica’s proposed data center in Yellowstone County, that information has been shared publicly by NorthWestern repeatedly.

In earnings webinars, NorthWestern stated it expected to serve 175 megawatts by 2028 for the data center, with phased growth to 500 megawatts by 2030. The letter of intent stated the utility could serve up to 1,000 megawatts for Quantica, nearly all the power the utility currently owns.

The memo argued the order was invalid because the PSC shielded information from the public that was already publicly shared by NorthWestern. Furthermore, the redactions were inconsistent, with a Silver Bow County data center developer — Atlas Power — undergoing partial redactions on some portions, while Quantica underwent full redactions on the same sections.

The document said NorthWestern failed to explain the need to lawfully withhold its letter of intents from the public. The groups consider the rationale insufficient that NorthWestern gave. The utility stated it “could put the parties at a competitive disadvantage.”

The memo stated the decision violated the right to know provision outlined in the Montana State Constitution. Additionally, the right to know wasn’t even considered in the commission’s process leading up to the order. No explanation was given by NorthWestern of what subjects were confidential in the letters, the parties said.

“The people of Montana can’t meaningfully participate in government if our basic constitutional rights are ignored,” Erik Nylund, a member of Butte Watchdogs for Social and Environmental Justice, said in a news release. “Corporations operating in secrecy is one thing, but our own government should be guaranteeing our rights, not suppressing them to serve special interests.”

NorthWestern previously promised that it would share future service to large load customers with the public before the end of the year, but that filing still hasn’t happened, the memo stated. The utility has previously said 11 more data centers are being considered for Montana and South Dakota, but didn’t provide information beyond that, despite requests by environmental groups.

The heavily redacted letters of intent have been a talking point for some environmental groups as data center presentations take place statewide. They say it indicates a lack of transparency from the data centers and NorthWestern as they share the heavily redacted documents.

“When a single data center can consume as much electricity as an entire city, Montana utility customers have good reason to be concerned about what that means for energy affordability and grid reliability,” Derek Goldman, Montana policy and regulatory associate with the NW Energy Coalition, said. “It’s doubly concerning that NorthWestern is hiding the details of its data center dealings from the public.”

Other groups included in the motion challenging the order are Climate Smart Missoula, Helena Interfaith Climate Advocates, Honor the Earth, Montana Environmental Information Center and Montana Public Interest Research Group.