Experts tell Montana interim committee that measuring 'grid utilization' could lower consumer bills

Ryan Lehi, a principal at The Brattle Group, told the committee the most straightforward way to lower electricity rates is to increase the amount of load flowing through existing transmission and distribution assets rather than immediately building large new facilities. "If you can add load to the system without needing to develop a lot of new infrastructure, you're able to share the fixed cost of the grid across more customers," Lehi said.He presented two modeled scenarios for a representative midsize utility (3,000 MW peak) and concluded that, under plausible assumptions about flexible connections and a 500 MW portfolio of distributed energy resources, average retail rates could fall by about 3.4% compared with a status‑quo, infrastructure‑heavy approach. Lehi cautioned this was a proof‑of‑concept and said outcomes depend on local system characteristics.Ian McGruder of Utilize, a cross‑sector coalition, described model legislation passed in Virginia that requires utilities to report utilization metrics to the regulator and to incorporate those metrics into planning. "Create the metrics, measure them and formally incorporate them into the planning process," McGruder said. He emphasized a tech‑neutral approach that lets lowest‑cost solutions compete.Panelist Molly Knoll said the critical next steps are metric design and regulatory calibration: how locational and temporal the metrics should be, what interconnection and safety standards must apply, and how utilization goals interact with other policy priorities such as reliability and distributed energy resource deployment.In committee Q&A, legislators pressed the panel on rural applicability and timing. Representative Perry asked how a policy that has been enacted in more urban states would translate to Montana's widely dispersed, less‑connected grid. "Begin by measuring it," McGruder replied. "We aren't really measuring this now, and it's hard to know whether we're in a good place if we don't measure it."Public commenters, including Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center, welcomed the concept but raised questions about whether utilities would incorporate transmission planning and whether utilities' integrated resource plans would reflect the analysis. The panel suggested pilots and utility‑specific studies as near‑term steps.The committee did not vote on legislation but asked staff to pursue follow‑up briefings and recommended the PSC and utilities consider pilot metrics and comparative studies tailored to Montana.