The last state vote standing between NorthWestern Energy and its merger with South Dakota’s Black Hills Corp. went the companies’ way Tuesday. The Montana Public Service Commission approved the $15.4 billion deal 3-2 in Helena, after a long day of public comment that ran mostly against it.
Commissioners Jennifer Fielder, Annie Bukacek and Kirk Bushman voted yes. Commission President Jeff Welborn and Commissioner Randy Pinocci voted no, the Daily Montanan and MTN News reported. Montana was the final state regulator to rule. Nebraska and South Dakota had already signed off, and the companies said in October that shareholders, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and federal antitrust reviewers had cleared it as well.
What changes, and what doesn’t
When the deal closes, Black Hills Corp. will be renamed Bright Horizon Energy Corp. and trade on the New York Stock Exchange as HZN, with NorthWestern becoming a wholly owned subsidiary, according to the companies’ Oct. 22 announcement. The holding company will be based in Rapid City, where Black Hills is headquartered, and NorthWestern CEO Brian Bird is slated to run it.
For Montana customers the utility’s name on the bill stays the same. NorthWestern is the state’s largest utility, with more than 400,000 electric and about 250,000 natural gas customers, MTN reported. Black Hills serves about 1.35 million customers in eight states, including a small number in southeastern Montana. Combined, the company would serve about 2.1 million electric and gas customers across Montana, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The commission’s order says rates will not go up as a result of the merger itself, and that “ring-fencing” rules separating the utility from its parent are strong enough to protect Montana ratepayers from the parent company’s financial risks. That does not freeze rates. NorthWestern can still ask for increases through regular rate cases, and the commission is weighing a separate “large load” tariff for customers that need 5 megawatts or more, a proposal aimed mostly at data centers.
The Colstrip conditions
The vote came two weeks after the commission delayed a decision on Oct. 27 so Fielder could prepare amendments. On Tuesday she offered two conditions, which passed 3-2 with Bukacek and Welborn opposed.
Both deal with the 370 megawatts of Colstrip generation NorthWestern agreed to take over from Puget Sound Energy. NorthWestern originally pitched that share as a resource for Montana customers, then said it would sit in a subsidiary outside the commission’s control. Under the conditions, NorthWestern must file a plan by June 2027 on whether that power could serve Montana customers as a low-cost supply, and it must analyze adding the Puget shares to its portfolio in its 2026 integrated resource plan.
Fielder told the commission that once the merger closes, NorthWestern alone can’t guarantee its earlier promise about the Colstrip power, because the decision would sit with the parent company, NBC Montana reported.
Why the split
Supporters on the commission leaned on the companies’ case that a bigger utility gets better borrowing costs and buying power. Fielder said the evidence points to tens of millions of dollars in savings that should reach customers. Bukacek said staff had worked through every argument against the deal and that rejecting it after the companies met the legal standard would leave the commission exposed.
Welborn said he could not find a clear benefit to Montanans. Pinocci said the deal did nothing about the question customers kept asking, which is how to bring rates down.
Most people who spoke during public comment opposed the merger. Several asked for a two-year rate freeze, pointing to what they said Nebraska had required, and for data center costs to be kept away from homes and small businesses. Others compared it to the 1997 breakup of Montana Power, which ended with lost pensions and higher bills. Bushman pushed back on that comparison, calling this deal the opposite: a regulated utility being folded into a larger one rather than broken apart.
The Montana Chamber of Commerce backed the merger, arguing the state needs more power to attract and keep businesses.
What’s next
NorthWestern said it is waiting for the commission’s final written order and still believes the deal is in customers’ best interest. The companies have not announced a closing date. Until then, NorthWestern shares keep trading on Nasdaq as NWE and Black Hills shares on the NYSE as BKH.
NorthWestern has run Montana’s main electric and gas system since 2002, when it bought the transmission and distribution business of the former Montana Power Co.
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