Senate committee opens discussion on large electric loads, favors interim study

Committee members and utility representatives opened a policy discussion on large electrical loads and whether utilities should be required to enter special contracts for exceptionally large or short-term customers. The conversation focused on how to protect existing ratepayers from costs tied to speculative or very large loads and how the Public Service Commission should review proposed arrangements.

Committee chair reflected on prior legislation that allowed special agreements for large loads above a modest megawatt threshold and said the current change under discussion aims to address “hyperloads” — requests far larger than earlier thresholds. “We’re talking about loads that are potentially one-tenth the size of Wyoming,” a committee member noted in describing a 100-megawatt example and the scale of requests seen elsewhere in regional service territories.

Tom Carter of Rocky Mountain Power described industry concerns from a multi-state perspective: utilities are seeing high volumes of speculative requests and want to ensure incremental costs are not shifted to existing customers. “We have concerns around the speculator loads,” Carter said. “We want to ensure that we are protecting our current customers from the speculator loads.” Carter said utilities are open to a legislative process or an interim study to craft protections and to determine an appropriate megawatt threshold.

David Bush of Black Hills Energy said his company uses tailored large-customer tariffs — for example, a large-power-customer service tariff and an interruptible tariff for certain blockchain or data-center loads — designed to require the customer to pay required infrastructure costs and to protect other customers. “We set it up to where they pay for everything that they need in order to get their service. We didn't rate base the stuff that we needed to serve their load,” Bush said, describing prior cooperative solutions with large data-center customers in Cheyenne.

Representatives of major customer groups and large electricity users urged caution about removing commission oversight. Thor Nelson, counsel for the Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers, told the committee the draft legislation as written risked sidelining required tariff review and could leave very large customers with no practical market option if utilities decline contractual terms. He recommended an interim process to design protections that preserve commission review, prevent cost shifting to other customers and clarify market access for large users.

Officials from the Public Service Commission and the Office of Consumer Advocate said they supported further study and suggested the commission’s tariff process may be the appropriate venue for many of the implementation questions. The committee chair and agency witnesses indicated a willingness to continue the discussion; members suggested the topic be taken up during the interim so stakeholders and agencies could develop a coordinated approach.

No formal committee vote was taken on statutory changes during the hearing; lawmakers signaled they would pursue an interim work process or draft changes after additional stakeholder engagement.