The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on Thursday approved We Energies’ $1.5 billion plan to build a new natural gas power plant in Oak Creek and a reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) natural gas power plant in the Kenosha County town of Paris.
The facilities are expected to generate more than 1,200 megawatts of combined energy. Both projects are planned to accommodate a surge in data center development in the area and We Energies’ efforts to transition to carbon neutral energy production by 2050.
“The commission’s decision today is an important next step in our efforts to meet growing electric demand across southeast Wisconsin,” said We Energies’ president Mike Hooper in a press release. “We are making the grid cleaner and greener while ensuring the lights stay on — no matter the weather — because we know that’s what matters most to our customers.”
We Energies’ new natural gas power plant planned for Oak Creek will be built at the Oak Creek Generating Site west of the existing coal-powered Oak Creek Power Plant and Elm Road Generating Station. The plant will generate 1,100 megawatts and will cost about $1.2 billion.
PSC Commissioners unanimously approved plans for the construction of Oak Creek’s plant with conditions including the immediate disclaimer of a decrease in overall energy need and the completion of a more robust demand response program.
We Energies’ RICE power plant project in the town of Paris will supply the area with 128 additional megawatts and will cost about $280 million.
PSC commissioners unanimously approved the Paris project also, under the condition that the location changes. Its new site will be southeast of 1st Street and 172nd Avenue, near an existing We Energies electric substation. The decision to change the Paris site will increase the timeline of the build by one year and increase the cost by $17 million to $23 million.
The construction of these power plants will largely support the incoming data centers in the area, most notably Microsoft’s $3.3 billion data center campus which is under construction in Mount Pleasant. The sprawling 240-acre campus is planned to house four 250,000-square-foot, single-story buildings, totaling an annual need of 450 megawatts.
The PSC commissioners’ approval qualifying the projects as “within the public interest” came with significant opposition.
The scale of the projects, their locations, and their natural gas initiatives are among the most contended issues within the proposal.
Milwaukee-based Power Wisconsin Forward, a coalition of clean energy and environmental organizations, called the decision “a major step backward” for Wisconsin’s clean energy future and the community’s health and wellbeing, according to a press release.
Power Wisconsin Forward argues that the PSC approval overlooks the presence of a clear timeline for future energy needs and sufficient justification for the scale and duration of the energy that would need to be generated.
PSC commissioners discussed the timeline of the projects and the scale and duration of the energy need during today’s meeting. None proposed conditions related to those concerns.
State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, called the approval “a slap in the face” to those who submitted comments to the PSC commissioners.
“Ultimately, this decision severely undermines Wisconsin’s commitment to a clean energy future,” Larson said in a press release. “Expanding fossil fuel infrastructure deepens our reliance on polluting energy sources for decades more than is necessary. This will only worsen the climate crisis and will place the heaviest burden on our neighbors already most at risk. All this for an AI data center that will result in a net decrease in jobs for Wisconsin, will likely not materialize, and is being done for a corporation that said they want to be carbon neutral. Who, exactly, are Governor Evers’ PSC commissioners listening to?”
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has issued preliminary approval of the air permit at the Oak Creek plant. Regulators note the new plant in Oak Creek would be a decrease of 3.5 million tons per year of carbon dioxide compared to the current Oak Creek coal plant, according to We Energies’ press release.
Now that the projects have secured PSC approval, construction can begin this year with the expectation that the plants will be brought online in the coming years.
