1. (1) A utility's resource procurement processes shall be guided by the policy in 69-3-1202, MCA, input from the public and the advisory committee provided for in 69-3-1208, MCA, and comments of the Commission on the utility's most recent resource plan.
2. (2) Utilities shall use transparent, competitive solicitations to acquire needed resources, subject to 69-3-1207, MCA, and the Commission's rules. Utilities shall document decisions regarding the types of procurement processes used for later submission in applications for rate recovery where the prudence of procurement processes and resource decisions is examined.
3. (3) An independent evaluator must be used to monitor and evaluate a utility’s competitive solicitation in accordance with 69-3-1207, MCA, and the Commission’s rules.
4. (4) A utility shall notify the Commission in advance of a decision to issue a competitive solicitation as soon as practicable so that the Commission may promptly select an independent evaluator. The notice shall precede release of a draft of the solicitation by at least 90 days. Before issuing the solicitation, the utility shall submit a draft of the solicitation to the Commission in accordance with 69-3-1207(2), MCA.

5. (5) The draft solicitation submitted pursuant to (4) shall include:

   1. (a) a thorough description of the input and recommendations of the advisory committee regarding the solicitation process and how the utility modified the solicitation process in response to the advisory committee's input and recommendations or, alternatively, the basis for not modifying the process; and
   2. (b) an index that relates specific sections of the solicitation to compliance with specific requirements of ARM 38.5.2024 and 38.5.2025.
6. (6) Upon notification of a utility's intent to issue a solicitation, the Commission will open a docket for purposes of receiving the draft solicitation and accepting public comment on the draft solicitation. The Commission shall provide notice to the public of the receipt of the draft solicitation and provide 45 days for interested persons to file written comments. The utility shall not issue the final solicitation until at least 70 days after submitting the draft solicitation. Upon issuing the final solicitation, the utility shall concurrently submit the solicitation to the Commission in the docket assigned to the draft solicitation.
7. (7) Prior to filing the draft competitive solicitation, the utility shall provide to the independent evaluator, all data, information, and models necessary for the independent evaluator to analyze and verify the models used in developing the draft competitive solicitation, as well as any other information necessary for the independent evaluator to fulfill its role.
8. (8) A utility shall provide all proposed and final scoring criteria and metrics in the draft and final competitive solicitations filed with the Commission.
9. (9) Competitive solicitations must allow bids from all resource types that may fill all or part of the characteristics or attributes of the resource need, including conservation and efficiency resources, demand response, or other distributed energy resources.
10. (10) Utilities shall consider the usefulness of competitive solicitations for identifying and acquiring demand-side and distribution-side resources but should also leverage their unique knowledge of their customers' demand characteristics to evaluate cost-effective resource potential and design programs for acquisition.

Authorizing statute(s): 69-3-1204, MCA

Implementing statute(s): 69-3-1204, 69-3-1205, 69-3-1207, 69-3-1208, 69-3-1209, 69-3-1210, MCA

History: NEW, 2023 MAR p. 21, Eff. 1/14/23; AMD, 2026 MAR, Notice No. 2026-298, Eff. 6/20/26.