NorthWestern Energy has responded to an inquiry from Montana regulatory officials about its plan to supply enormous amounts of coal-fired electricity to two proposed data centers near Butte in the coming years.

The energy company, Montana’s largest regulated monopoly utility, says that serving these new “large load” customers “can bring significant benefits” to all of its customers by supporting future capital investments and infrastructure improvements. In essence, NorthWestern is saying that they’ll be making money off these new data centers and will use that money to improve the energy system in Montana.