Utility president calls probe punitive as deputy chairman cites persistent public complaints
Wyoming’s utility regulators voted unanimously Oct. 29 to investigate allegations that Rocky Mountain Power is slow or unwilling to accommodate requests from existing and prospective customers who want large amounts of new electrical power. The three-member Wyoming Public Service Commission, which holds authority over monopoly utilities like Rocky Mountain Power to provide reliable, lowest-cost service, voted to “direct the company to provide relevant information and take such other action as the public interest may require.” Commissioners said they will examine the company’s responses to large electricity requests dating back to January 2022.
It is not yet clear what actions the commission might take if the investigation reveals shortcomings in the utility meeting its legal obligations in Wyoming. The commission is still finalizing the investigation order, an official told WyoFile.
Launching the investigation is not a condemnation of Rocky Mountain Power, Commission Deputy Chairman Chris Petrie said. “I think that this situation, because of the persistent complaints in the public about the company’s handling of such matters, requires us to resort to this investigation process in order to obtain assurance,” Petrie said. “We have our obligation to see that safe, adequate and reliable service at just and reasonable rates is available throughout the service territory of Rocky Mountain Power.”
The move comes amid unprecedented, skyrocketing demand for electricity in Wyoming and across the nation, driven primarily by the buildout of artificial intelligence computing. U.S. utilities say they are fielding requests that would double or triple current electrical generation capacity, the Associated Press reported last year. In Wyoming, data center proposals from just two developers would require more than twice the state’s existing electrical generation capacity of 11,800 megawatts.
Rocky Mountain Power, the largest regulated electric utility in Wyoming, says it has studied 83 requests for additional power during the past decade and served 24 of those, totaling 258 megawatts. The company says it has also evaluated some 4,300 megawatts of “large load” requests, defined as requests for more than 20 megawatts. One megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes.
Rocky Mountain Power President Dick Garlish attributed what many in Wyoming see as a slow, years-long response to “large load” requests to a complex set of state and federal regulations. The rules, along with the company’s own mission, are intended to protect against speculative investments so they do not fall on the backs of existing customers to pay for if plans do not pan out, Garlish told the commission. “We’re not going to do any deal for (just) any reason,” he said. “We take our responsibilities as a regulated monopoly seriously, and we care about our customers — existing and future.”
Garlish said the decision to launch an investigation feels punitive because no customer requesting power has filed a formal complaint. “I don’t see the reasonable, probable cause, or even a reasonable suspicion,” he told the commission. “We’ve been nothing but candid and forthright in this venue and in the legislative venue and with our customers, so it feels unnecessarily burdensome and punitive.”
Many of the large electricity requests the company receives, Garlish told commissioners, come from “entrepreneurial” hopefuls, and many of those projects fall by the wayside for lack of financing, long permitting times and myriad other reasons apart from securing electrical power. “Nobody wants to land a large-load deal in our service territory more than I do,” he said. “But it has to protect existing customers. We won’t sign a deal that puts existing customers at risk. Growth needs to pay for growth. We have an obligation, just like you do, to protect our existing customers and protect our existing systems.” The company is spending $80 million on initiatives to meet rising demand, he added.
The utility’s response to new power requests has continually come before legislative committees, including from Wyoming’s long-existing trona and soda ash industry. Industry spokeswoman Jody Levin told a panel of lawmakers in May that trona expansion plans were delayed because the utility allegedly concluded that the soonest it could provide a significant boost in power to the industry is seven years out. “Seven years is a de facto no,” Levin said. “That isn’t a reasonable timeframe.”
“Testimony before multiple legislative committees from industry and other entities have highlighted the issues that exist in acquiring timely and reliable access to power in southwest Wyoming,” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti told WyoFile this week. “We will be monitoring this closely.”
Holland and Hart attorney Austin Jensen, representing the Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers group, told the commission that no customers — prospective or existing — have filed formal complaints because they are beholden to the utility. The group consists of oil and natural gas refineries, trona and other industrial customers of Rocky Mountain Power. “They have to work with the incumbent utility,” Jensen said. “It is not good for business to call your only option before the commission (forcing them to undergo) a formal complaint process.”
Wyoming lawmakers, prompted by both entrepreneurial and existing industries in the state, have contemplated potentially tweaking regulations to allow third-party power producers as an alternative to relying on established utilities — an idea Rocky Mountain Power has opposed.
The story was reported by WyoFile and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press. WyoFile’s report carries an editor’s note disclosing that Rocky Mountain Power is one of the outlet’s sponsors.