Spokane, WASH. — Avista confirmed today that the ‘large load customer’ it entered into an agreement with that would consume as much electricity as half the utility’s service area in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, is in fact a data center.
The company originally said it could not provide any specifics on the project, but confirmed to KXLY today that the potential project is a data center development. It’s not clear where the development would be located.
The Spokane-based utility disclosed the agreement in SEC filings in late May, referring to the entity only as a “large load customer.” Avista has not revealed the company’s identity or what type of business it operates.
The agreement calls for the customer to use 500 megawatts of electricity by 2032, starting with 125 megawatts by 2029. To understand the scale, Avista says 1 to 2 megawatts provides enough electricity to power a hospital.
The Northwest Power and Conservation Council says that level of power consumption is typical for an AI hyperscale data center.
“We are not going to allow large requests for power to negatively impact other customer rates,” said Garrett Brown, an Avista spokesperson. “In fact, our position is as a company that if we are to serve a large electric consumer of power, that we are going to do so in a way that produces a net benefit to all of our other customers.”
The utility says the large load customer would be responsible for covering the costs of any additional infrastructure needed.
The agreement represents an early stage in the process. Next steps include negotiating an engineering and procurement contract with financial assurances. The project still requires approval of local, state and federal permits before moving forward in the Inland Northwest.
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