Montana’s largest electric and gas utility wants to charge customers more. NorthWestern Energy says the cost to generate power is increasing and that means bills need to go up, too. The decision is up to state regulators who, for the second time this month have found major holes in the company’s request.
NorthWestern Energy is asking to increase power bill rates by at least 8%. Earlier this month, the Public Service Commission told the utility it needed more information before it could begin reviewing that request.
NorthWestern did that, but regulators say it’s still not enough.
PSC Analyst Haylee Gobert told commissioners on Tuesday that NorthWestern’s failure to explain their reasons for a rate increase is unusual for the utility.
“In other previous dockets, there's been minor deficiencies and those are usually updated in discovery, whereas this met a higher threshold of deficiency. And so this is the first time we've seen this,” Gobert said.
The PSC gave NorthWestern a week to bring more information.
Last fall, The PSC granted NorthWestern’s request to increase customers’ rates by 28%.
