Montana speakers raise concerns about data centers

MISSOULA, Montana — Speakers at a discussion hosted at the University of Montana said data centers could bring higher costs and infrastructure pressure for the public.

Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center said she was concerned that electricity costs tied to data centers could be passed on to utility customers.

She said data centers should be placed in their own rate class, so the costs linked to them stay with them instead of being spread across other customers.

“Data centers are unique in the energy world. They need their own separate rate class, because what happens when they have a separate rate class is we can combine all the costs that they impose on the system and attribute to them and make them pay those costs, as opposed to sharing those costs across all the other customer groups,” Hedges said.

Hedges also criticized NorthWestern Energy and said she believed the process had not been transparent, pointing at pictures of redacted documents from the utility.

“These are the agreements NorthWestern has struck with data centers in Montana, and they are useless to us. Basically, the only thing that isn't crossed out is something that says "this is confidential information." That's what we're working with,” Hedges said.

Barbara Chillcott with the Western Environmental Law Center also spoke about pressure on wastewater systems.

She said Montana was not in a strong position to handle wastewater treatment demands from data centers.

“One thing in Montana that strikes me is that we're already at a disadvantage in terms of our public water supply systems. In 2024, Montana received a C-minus for wastewater infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers.,” Chillcott said.