WEC Energy Group, the parent company of We Energies, plans to make $28 billion in capital investments from 2025 to 2029, a $4.3 billion increase from its current five-year plan that runs through 2028.
“A major factor in our plan is the economic growth we’re seeing in southeastern Wisconsin, particularly in what we call the I-94 corridor between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line,”
Scott Lauber, president and chief executive of WEC Energy Group, said during the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Lauber said the new plan supports an additional 1,800 megawatts of demand over the next five years, up 400 MW from the 1,400 MW of additional demand accounted for in the previous plan. The entire system is around 7,500 MW.
The additional demand includes Microsoft’s development of a data center campus in Mount Pleasant, some increased demand from electric vehicles and other economic development in the region, Lauber said.
Lauber was asked if the plan includes additional phases of Microsoft’s data center plans or if WEC Energy Group would need to add even more capacity if the tech giant were to add more phases.
“We will let Microsoft make their announcements,” Lauber said. “Working with them on the demand, I’m not sure if that actually includes some other phases or not. We work with them on kind of the demand over the period and kind of keep it inside baseball here unfortunately, but that’s the way they want to do it, which is fine.”
However, Lauber did say there has been interest in additional data center development in the area beyond Microsoft.
“Just like many other companies, we are getting inquires from a variety of other data centers," he said. "We just don’t come out with a number until we really feel comfortable that it’s actually going to happen.”
If there were additional data center investments in the region, it would likely impact that latter half of the company’s capital plan, Lauber said.
“Base on the conversations, there’s just a lot of good discussion on continued economic development in the region,” he added.
The capital plan WEC Energy Group laid out continues the
company’s trend of investing in renewable energy. The new plan includes a $2.1 billion increase compared to the prior plan for regulated renewable electricity generation for a total of $9.1 billion.
Most of the additional spending would go toward battery storage capacity. The current plan calls for 250 MW of battery storage. The new plan calls for 600 MW. Solar is increasing from 2,700 MW to 2,900 MW. The current plan calls for 880 MW of wind capacity and Lauber said the new plan would have 900 MW.
The plan also calls for $900 million more for natural gas electricity generation, a $400 million increase for liquified natural gas capacity, a $700 million increase in electric distribution, and an additional $200 million in transmission investments.
WEC Energy Group also plans to decrease its energy infrastructure investments by $800 million. These investments are typically made in renewable energy projects outside of Wisconsin and are not part of the regulated utility that provides power to customers in the state.
