Wyoming utilities, co-ops and miners clash over interruptible power tariff; committee to redraft

A Wyoming select committee reviewed a draft bill that would require electric utilities to offer interruptible or load-management rates and to permit other utilities to serve customers in certificated territories where such tariffs are not available. The bill — introduced as a new statute (drafted in materials as proposed 37-3-120) — prompted extended testimony from the Wyoming Public Service Commission (PSC), investor-owned utilities, generation-and-transmission cooperatives and mining companies. Committee members did not adopt the draft; instead they asked staff to revise language and continue working with stakeholders.

Talise Hanson, the bill’s presenting staff attorney, walked members through the draft sections, portions of which would require utilities to establish at least one interruptible service or load-management rate beginning July 1, 2027; allow utilities to apply for an exemption to that requirement by May 1, 2027 (and annually thereafter); and require utilities to submit interruptible-service rates to the PSC by Sept. 1, 2027. The draft also included a process by which, if a utility lacked a tariff or received an exemption, customers located in that certificated territory could procure service from another electric utility after notice to the PSC and the incumbent utility, provided the new service did not reduce service to other customers in the territory.

The PSC’s chairman, Mike Robinson, and Deputy Chairman Petrie recommended several changes. They noted the PSC does not generally regulate municipal…