NorthWestern Energy LLC electricity rates

It is the dominant supplier in Montana, serving 328,125 residential customers, so its pricing effectively sets what the state average looks like. At 14.23¢ per kilowatt-hour it tracks the Montana average of 14.67¢ closely, which is what you would expect from a utility large enough to shape that average itself.

Consumption here is below the national norm at 711 kilowatt-hours a month against 871, which softens the effect of the rate on the final bill.

A shareholder-owned company whose rates are set by the state regulator, including an approved return on the capital it has invested. That matters because a bill is not only the cost of generating electricity: it also carries the cost of the network, and who owns that network changes how it is paid for.

In 2024 the average NorthWestern Energy LLC customer went 233 minutes without electricity across 1.3 interruptions. The median across the 941 utilities that report this is 185 minutes.

That is worse than typical. Overhead lines through wooded or storm-exposed terrain are the usual explanation, and the fix is vegetation management and circuit automation, both of which are recovered through rates.

8,159 residential customers had net-metered solar in 2024, totalling 58.43 megawatts. That works out to 24.9 installations per thousand customers, against a median of 8 across the utilities reporting it.

Adoption is above the national median, which generally tracks the retail rate more closely than it tracks sunshine. What exports are actually worth.