Sounds like UP has forgotten the lessons it learned the hard way
when the first started DPU operations in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.

At that time, the very thought of having more locomotive power on
any train than the absolute minimum to keep moving on the rolling
grades was forbidden, so they started practicing a lot of false
economy. For example, they would put DPUs on westbound trains at
Pocatello and set them out at Hinkle, or in some cases, put them in
at Nampa and cut them out at Hinkle. Vice-versa for eastbounds.

The delays caused in doing all this was horrendous, but it was 'saving
power' instead of 'wasting power' by not having DPU's on the flatter
areas between the grade areas.

It took a couple of years before they figured out that if you put the
DPUs in at the origin of the train (say, North Platte for westbounds
and Hinkle for eastbounds and let them stay in the train all the way
through, a lot of time and aggravation (and hoglaws) were saved.