Work has started on the data center near Broadview. I hear the same question at doors almost every week now: is it too late to matter?
It isn’t. The ground has been broken, and the biggest decisions on this project are still ahead. Most of them will be made in Helena.
The power
Quantica says the data center itself will use 1,100 megawatts. It has applied to connect up to 7,235 megawatts to the grid. For scale, the most electricity NorthWestern Energy’s Montana system has ever delivered at one moment was about 2,079 megawatts, during the January 2024 cold snap.
Power on that scale needs new plants and new lines, and someone pays for them. The Public Service Commission has told NorthWestern it expects to review service to data centers before the power is turned on, and a proposed data center tariff, the rules and rates these customers would pay, is before the commission now.
That review is where a household’s power bill gets protected or exposed. I’ll push for a separate rate class so the largest data centers carry their own power costs, full accounting of the grid upgrades they require, and contracts the public can read.
The water
Quantica plans to drill a well into the Madison Aquifer, deep below the wells most neighbors use. It projects about 150,000 gallons a day during construction and about 20,000 gallons a day once the campus is finished, using closed-loop cooling.
The state is reviewing that well right now. The Department of Environmental Quality is taking public comments through October 29, and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation handles the water rights. If water is your concern, this is the moment to say so.
Ranchers near Broadview have depended on scarce water for generations. I’ll push for honest water standards and public reporting, so neighbors can see what a project this size actually draws, year after year.
Every expansion
The distance between 1,100 megawatts and 7,235 megawatts is a long list of future decisions: gas plants, wind and solar, storage, transmission lines. Each one needs its own permits and approvals, and each one is a chance to set the terms.
Where those decisions get made
This summer, three local paths closed for neighbors: the petition deadline, the scope of local initiatives, and county regulation itself. Each one turned on a decision made in Helena. I wrote about that in The Data Center Issue Moved to Helena.
The same holds for what comes next. Rate classes, Public Service Commission authority, water standards, and the authority counties have to set terms are all set by the Legislature.
I’ll be straightforward about the limits. A legislator can’t ban a data center, and one legislator is one vote. What I can do is ask the right questions, vote for protections that keep these costs with the companies that create them, and work with anyone, in either party, who wants the same thing.
Why I ask these questions
I’ve built my career in technology, which is exactly why I’m skeptical of the largest data centers. I welcome good jobs in Montana, and I want them built on our terms: protect the ratepayers, guard the water, and make them pay their own way.
The decision is still ahead. So is your say in it.