IDACORP is no longer a quiet hydro utility waiting on weather to decide the year. The second-quarter print shows Idaho Power converting a settled Idaho rate case and a first wave of semiconductor and data-center contracts into earned income while leaving the tax-credit crutch unused. That combination is the change. The investment debate is whether those large-load contracts keep funding a heavy construction book without a new Idaho general rate case, or whether construction work converting to plant-in-service outruns the cash those customers send.
The January rate reset from the 2025 Settlement Stipulation did the heavy lifting on the ordinary retail book. Retail revenues per megawatt-hour, excluding large contracts, added $27.5 million of operating income. Large-contract customers contributed another $6.5 million as usage rose and a new energy service agreement started in June. Industrial revenues jumped 17 percent. The ordinary customer count also grew, adding a smaller but steady layer of volume that does not depend on a single fab or campus turning on racks.
The cleaner signal is what management did not book under the Idaho regulatory mechanism. Idaho Power recorded no additional tax-credit amortization in the quarter. The year-earlier quarter used $17.2 million of those credits. First-half usage fell to $6.3 million. Management then raised the floor of full-year earnings guidance and cut the expected tax-credit draw in half. Earnings quality improved even as reported diluted earnings barely moved, because last year's print was padded by credits that this year's operations did not need.
The equity last printed near $136 on the company site, with a market value of $7.84 billion. That price already treats the Idaho industrial buildout as a going concern rather than an option. The next test is whether large-load cash covers the next wave of plant-in-service before a probable mid-2027 filing, and whether the at-the-market equity program stays modest as construction work in progress sits above $1.8 billion.