Two of Wisconsin’s largest utility companies are asking for about $800 million in rate increases over the next two years.
Last Friday, We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service — both owned by WEC Energy Group — filed applications with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to increase electric and gas rates in 2025 and 2026.
We Energies hopes to increase electric rates by 6.9 percent in 2025 and 4.6 percent in 2026, according to the utility’s application with the PSC. It also requested increases for both of the gas utilities it owns. We Energies’ gas utilities would increase rates by 15 percent and 11.8 percent by 2026. We Energies’ steam utility in downtown Milwaukee also asked for an 8.4 percent rate hike in 2025, but no increase in 2026.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Public Service is requesting an 8.5 percent electric rate increase in 2025 and a 4.9 percent increase in 2026, according to the utility’s application. WPS also requested gas rate increases of 6.8 percent next year and 3.9 percent in 2026.
WEC Energy Group spokesperson Brendan Conway said much of the proposed electric rate increases are tied to construction costs from renewable energy and natural gas projects that have already been approved by the Public Service Commission.
“They approve the project and then years later, once those projects go into service, then that’s when they go into rates,” he said.
Consumer groups like the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group are calling on the Public Service Commission to look for all possible savings as it works through the rate increase process.
Todd Stuart, executive director for the nonprofit Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, said the state’s largest manufacturers pay more for electricity than their peers in other Midwestern states. He said the average monthly electric bill for a large manufacturer in Wisconsin exceeds $1 million.
A 2023 survey of more than 400 Wisconsin manufacturing executives by the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing & Productivity found 26 percent listed energy costs among their top concerns. “It’s tough for me when we’re competing in world markets, and energy is one of their top three costs of doing business,” Stuart said. “We think it acts like a tax. If you want to move the needle on jobs and economic development, then I think addressing those rates — getting them under control — should be a public policy priority.”
The Public Service Commission will hold public hearings on the rate cases later this year, and could make a decision by November or December.