Avista agrees to framework to provide single business with power equal to half of all Spokane County customers

Avista Corp. has entered into an agreement with one "large load" customer that is seeking to use an amount of electricity that would be equal to more than half the combined power used by all residential and business customers in Spokane County.

The filing dated May 29 with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission does not identify the company or where the proposed business would be located, other than within the company's "Washington service territory."

"The Customer is seeking an initial load demand of 125 megawatts (MW) starting in 2029, with a pathway to expand to 500 MW by 2032," the filing states. "The construction and completion of the proposed large load project will be subject to customary conditions, including federal, state, and local authorizations and permits."

Avista spokesman Jared Webley would not name the company or the nature of its proposed business.

"We know there's a lot of interest - and some concern - around large load customers such as data centers," Webley said in an email. "Our priority is always protecting existing customers, while still planning responsibly for growth.

"If we do enter into a contract with a large load customer," he continued, "it will be structured so that the large load customer pays for the added costs - things like new power supply, transmission upgrades, and any other infrastructure needed specifically to serve them."

The implications for the request are huge.

For comparison, when Kaiser Aluminum operated the Mead smelter and the Trentwood rolling mill, the company used about 635 megawatts at full capacity.

Avista, according to its website, currently generates about 3,000 megawatts during peak demand for its entire service area, which includes Eastern Washington, North Idaho and parts of Oregon.

If approved, the new customer would eventually draw electricity equal to 16% of Avista's current power load.

While the nature of the business remains a secret, the request comes during a proliferation of power-hungry data centers across the country that use vast amounts of electricity and water to fuel the artificial intelligence boom.

Spokane County Commissioner Al French, a Republican, went to Olympia in February to advocate for a sales tax exemption for data centers seeking to build operations in Spokane County. Reached by phone on Wednesday, French said he learned of the Avista deal on Tuesday and did not know either the company or what type of operation it seeks to build.

"What I was advocating for was to have Spokane County be treated like other counties in the state," French said. "For whatever reason, Spokane County was excluded from that sales tax exemption."

That legislation eventually failed. But French warned that his advocacy in February should not be perceived as tacit support for power-hungry data centers coming to Spokane, he said.

"I've had a number of different people approach me for doing data centers," French said. "From my standpoint, that's a nice project. But what are you doing to offset the electrical demand and making sure that I'm not negatively impacting my ratepayers?"

The best recent local example of power-request-versus-impact on ratepayers came a few years ago in Usk when Allrise Capital Inc. purchased a former papermill and sought 600 megawatts of power to convert the mill into one of the largest cryptocurrency mining operations in the country.

That ambitious project languished when officials from the Pend Oreille County Public Utility District refused to force its other ratepayers to cover the $104 million worth of infrastructure upgrades needed to send that much electricity to the facility.

French noted that the unnamed business working with Avista could be something like a Boeing manufacturing facility, which he would welcome with open arms.

"There is a balance that we have to go and try and meet," French said. "We wouldn't just take anybody. What are you going to do to make it better for our ratepayers? That's part of the problem in other communities."

Webley said Avista shares the same concerns as French about adding a major new customer.

"Those costs will not be shifted onto existing customers," he said. "When done the right way, large load customers can actually help by spreading fixed system costs across more usage, which can ease upward pressure on customer rates over time. Avista's goal is to ensure that the integration of new large loads provides a net benefit to all other customers."

French said he wasn't surprised that he didn't know the identity of the company.

"The fact that Avista is working with a potential company is great for everybody provided that they are not a negative impact on the community," he said. "I don't see this as a negative. I see it as a positive. I hope to know more."

Rep. Timm Orsmby, D-Spokane, was one of the co-sponsors of the bill in January seeking to provide a sales tax exemption for data centers that French also supported.

Like French, Ormsby said he did not know what company was seeking the power load from Avista.

As for his failed bill, Ormsby said he had contact from a company he would not name that was seeking to build a data center in the Spokane area that would have used wastewater to generate hydrogen that would have, in turn, fueled the operation of the data center.

"My involvement was very specific on a concept that would have allowed this developer to use next-generation technology for data centers," Ormsby said. "There was no discussion about having to have an MOU with the utility to provide supplementary or complete service."

Avista's agreement with the major electricity user came in the form of a nonbinding memorandum of understanding.

Like French, Ormsby said he could support a data center as long as it creates jobs, contributes to the local tax base, doesn't hurt the environment or force residents to pay more for their electricity.

"If on balance, this is good for everybody, I can get there," he said. "It's only been in the last year that anyone has brought up any concerns about data centers. It's all hair-on-fire whatever your position is."

Data centers have proliferated along with the need for the computer generation needed to fuel the AI revolution. Washington state ranks in the top 10 in the nation with more than 100 data centers.

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll released last month showed that seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, including 48% who were strongly opposed.

"It's a confluence of water, low-cost land and low-cost power," Ormsby said. "Without that trifecta, you are not going to get that."

One of those confluences is Quincy, Washington, which is home to 27 data centers. Of those, 21 are owned by Microsoft, according to the Seattle Times.

To power all of those facilities, the Grant County Public Utility District in 2019 started working on the Quincy Transmission Expansion Plan, which would add six new transmission lines at a cost of about $260 million. Microsoft committed more than $2.6 million to the project, court records show.

Once completed, the utility will double the amount of power that can be brought into Quincy - from 372 megawatts to 750.

The proposal being considered by Avista would nearly match that power output.

Ormsby noted Quincy only had a handful of data centers "when I got into the issue," he said.

French said the proliferation of data centers in Quincy is something Spokane does not want to replicate.

"Quincy does provide me an education at someone else's expense," he said. "They wholesaled themselves to the detriment of ratepayers and the community. We don't want to repeat that same approach."

Webley, from Avista, noted that the proposed deal will have to be approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

"That means engineering studies, required upgrades and reliability protections are all in place first," he said. "We believe large load customers can be part of a long-term approach to keeping energy affordable, but we will not proceed unless we are comfortable that any agreement we enter into protects reliability, avoids cost-shifting and makes sense for the communities we serve."

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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 11:43 PM.