PUC staff and intervenors urge electrification study; debate continues over who should run programs and how to fund them

PUC staff, intervenors and state officials told the commission on Oct. 31 that an electrification study and a small pilot are intended to be complementary steps but will not, by themselves, answer all legal or incentive‑structure questions about utility‑led beneficial electrification.

Eric Haglund, section head of the PUC economics team, said staff supports a targeted study focused on Black Hills’ service territory to produce empirically grounded assumptions—participation rates, incremental costs, and installation needs—that could narrow the range of cost estimates offered by parties. "The hope is that a study provides some actual empirical evidence of…