States › Montana › Phillips County
Electric utilities serving Phillips County, Montana
Utilities that list the county in their Form EIA-861 service territory for 2024, with each one's average price, bill and outage minutes.
4 utilities list Phillips County, Montana, in the service territory they reported to EIA for 2024, the largest by residential customers statewide being NorthWestern Energy LLC, Big Flat Electric Coop Inc and NorVal Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Its average residential price was 14.23¢ per kilowatthour, against a Montana average of 12.66¢ and a US average of 16.48¢. Each price is the utility's figure for all of its Montana customers, not for this county alone.
WAPA: Western Area Power Administration lists the county too but reported no residential sales in Montana under its own name.
The median SAIDI they reported was 233.4 minutes per customer including major event days; the median among all Montana utilities reporting was 352.4.
The Census Bureau estimates the county's population at 4,203. EIA does not publish customers by county, so which utility serves a given address has to be confirmed with the utility or the state utility commission.
Average price is revenue divided by sales for the sector and year; it is not a tariff rate. Reliability figures are as reported by utilities to EIA on Form 861 and may use different calculation methods. Figures are for each utility's whole Montana operation; EIA publishes nothing at county level.
Utilities and their 2024 figures
| Utility | Ownership | Residential customers | ¢ per kWh | Monthly bill | SAIDI, all events | SAIDI, no major events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NorthWestern Energy LLC | Investor-owned | 328,127 | 14.23¢ | $101.20 | 233.4 | 117.9 |
| Big Flat Electric Coop Inc short form | Cooperative | 2,075 | — | — | — | — |
| NorVal Electric Cooperative, Inc short form | Cooperative | 1,937 | — | — | — | — |
| WAPA: Western Area Power Administration | Federal | — | — | — | — | — |
Ordered by residential customers in Montana. Short-form filers are small utilities that report only totals to EIA, so no residential price is available; their all-sector revenue per kWh was Big Flat Electric Coop Inc 13.06¢, NorVal Electric Cooperative, Inc 15.59¢. A utility with no customers shown reported its retail sales elsewhere or delivers power that other companies bill for.
Against the state and the country
| Measure, 2024 | Utilities listing Phillips County | Montana | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average residential price per kWh | 14.23¢ median | 12.66¢ | 16.48¢ |
| Average monthly residential bill | $101.20 median | $107.91 | $142.26 |
| SAIDI, all events (minutes) | 233.4 median | 352.4 median | 184.5 median |
| SAIDI, without major event days | 117.9 median | 177.2 median | 99.8 median |
| Utilities counted | 4 | 14 | 1,413 |
Outage minutes reported
SAIDI for 2024 across each utility's whole system, including major event days (paler bars: only the figure without major event days was reported). Not a measure of outages in Phillips County itself.
Population: 4,203 (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 estimate). Statewide, residential sales came to 4,980 kWh per resident in 2024.
Other Montana counties
- Meagher County 4
- Mineral County 3
- Missoula County 5
- Musselshell County 3
- Park County 3
- Petroleum County 2
- Pondera County 5
- Powder River County 4
- Powell County 3
- Prairie County 4
- Ravalli County 3
- Richland County 5
All 56 counties and every Montana utility
Questions and answers
Who provides electricity in Phillips County?
NorthWestern Energy LLC, Big Flat Electric Coop Inc, NorVal Electric Cooperative, Inc and WAPA: Western Area Power Administration list the county in their Form EIA-861 service territory for 2024. Territories overlap, and a utility may cover only a corner of the county.
What is the electricity price in Phillips County?
EIA has no county-level prices. The utilities serving the county reported average residential prices of 14.23¢ per kilowatthour across their Montana customers in 2024; the state average was 12.66¢.
How reliable is power in Phillips County?
Reliability is reported per utility, not per county. The utilities listed reported a median of 233.4 minutes of interruption per customer in 2024 including major event days and 117.9 minutes excluding them.
Provenance
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861 for 2024, final release: service territory file (counties by utility), sales to ultimate customers, reliability and short form files. State and US averages: Form EIA-861M workbook. Population: U.S. Census Bureau. Public domain. To confirm the utility at an address, ask the utility or the state utility commission.