President, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Black Hills
Search every verified Linden Evans interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Linn Evans, president and CEO of Black Hills Corporation, has discussed the company's growth strategy and its focus on serving data center customers. In a December 2025 interview at the EEI financial conference, Evans stated that Black Hills has a "very unique tariff" in Wyoming that provides flexibility in serving data centers rapidly and efficiently. He noted that the company has been serving Microsoft as a data center customer for more than 10 years and announced it will also serve Meta. Evans described a $4.7 billion capital investment plan over five years, including a 260-mile transmission line in Wyoming called "Ready Wyoming" and a 99-megawatt generation project in Rapid City, South Dakota. He also discussed a pending merger with Northwestern Energy, saying it would create a "combined balance sheet" to address growing energy demand. Evans has emphasized the company's financial history, stating that Black Hills has issued a dividend for 83 consecutive years and increased it for 55 consecutive years. He has also highlighted the company's reliability record, saying two of its electric utilities are in the top quartile for reliability and one is ranked number two in the nation. In earlier appearances, Evans discussed the company's commitment to community support, including a $375,000 corporate commitment for COVID-19 relief efforts across eight states in 2020, and a policy of not disconnecting customers for non-payment during the pandemic. He has also spoken about the importance of early childhood education and the company's support for enhancing child care in South Dakota.
“The state of Wyoming has done a really nice job putting legislation in place, tax policies in place that allow data centers that want to be located in Southeast Wyoming, Cheyenne, that we serve. Importantly, it's got some geographic advantages, too. Uh two railroads intersect in the city of Cheyenne, which means there'...”
“Our capital projects consist of, over the next 5 years, $4.7 billion of investment. Things that are driving that investment are first, so we're finishing a very important transmission line in Wyoming. It's called Ready Wyoming. It's the 260-mi transmission line. We've been investing $350 million. That's going to allow...”
“It's a great opportunity for us. We've been talking to Northwestern for the last couple of decades. We see it as very positive. We serve eight different states of the Midwest. They happen to serve three states where we overlap in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana. So, it's very complementary. We already serve those s...”
“We have been issuing a dividend by the way for 83 years in a row. We've increased that dividend the last 55 years consecutively.”
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Linn Evans, President of Black Hills Energy shares why Early Learning is a priority in South Dakota.
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