On the evening of February 4, 2026 the large community room of the Bozeman Public Library was filled to capacity with citizens who attended a listening session as part of Northwestern Energy’s public meetings about their next 20 Year Integrated Resource Plan or IRP. It was the final of four public meetings held across Montana, after those held in Great Falls, Missoula and Helena.

Under Montana law, regulated monopoly utilities such as Northwestern Energy must prepare and submit to the Public Service Commission (PSC) an Integrated Resource Plan every three years. These plans are supposed to detail how utilities plan to supply reliable and affordable electricity to their customers over the next 20 years. The IRP is a modeling exercise to help plan an electricity generation mix, that can keep the lights on during the most extreme weather days of the year. The information that Northwestern uses to create its model: assumptions, inputs, constraints, and goals have tremendous influence over the outputs the model generates.

Mike Meis, community relations manager at Northwestern Energy’s Bozeman office, moderated the meeting.

John Shafer, The Manager of Energy Supply Planning in Montana and South Dakota, gave a presentation explaining their Montana Integrated Resource Plan before more than 20 citizens added their public comments about the proposed plan.

You can add your comments via email at this address:  IRP@northwestern.com  until March 12, 2026.