A Clear Win: PSC to Demand Consistent Data Center Pricing Plans

  • May 8, 2026
870 450 Tom Content

State energy regulators on Thursday sent a clear message to Alliant Energy and other Wisconsin utilities Thursday when they required Alliant to develop a standardized rate framework for collecting costs from energy intensive AI data centers.

That decision came as the Public Service Commission made critical changes sought by CUB to a contract Alliant signed with Degas LLC, a subsidiary of the tech giant Meta Platforms Inc.

Many of the changes made by the Commission were recommended or supported by CUB, and CUB has called for Alliant and other utilities to develop a consistent utility-wide approach when it comes to utility costs for data centers.

“This decision is an important win for CUB and for Alliant Energy customers,” said Tom Content, CUB executive director. “The PSC ordered Alliant to file a much more transparent plan for all future data center projects. And for the Beaver Dam project in particular, the commissioners made critical changes our team sought so that customers have greater assurance that they won’t be on the hook for costs Meta should pay.”

Among the key changes required by the commissioners during their nearly five-hour meeting on Thursday, the PSC:

  • Expanded a termination charge to protect customers for the duration of the 10-year contract.
  • Bolstered protection for customers by requiring that Meta provide a parental financial backstop in case the subsidiary operating the data center runs into financial challenges.
  • Required the data center to pay its full share to Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s statewide energy efficiency program; this is consistent with what the PSC required the data centers to do two weeks ago for We Energies. Currently big manufacturers enjoy a significant discount on what they pay to support energy efficiency programs that help people save on their bills.
  • Ordered Alliant to work with American Transmission Company to prevent subsidization of costs to build transmission lines for data centers.
“It was gratifying to see the PSC lift up and implement recommendations that were submitted by each of the three CUB experts who testified in this critical case,” Content said. 
 
CUB, the consumer advocate for homeowners, renters and small businesses across the state, has been at the center of key cases involving data centers. The two recent decisions, this week involving Alliant and two weeks ago involving We Energies, are the most consequential cases for CUB since its creation in 1979.
 
Similar to the decision involving We Energies two weeks ago, PSC commissioners said they could only go so far in protecting customers from certain costs, in particular the cost of new transmission lines being built for data centers.
 
Pewaukee-based American Transmission Co. is eyeing a need to spend $2.2 billion for projects to plug in three data center projects, in Beaver Dam, Port Washington and Racine County. American Transmission Company’s rates are set by federal regulators in Washington, D.C.
 
We Energies has indicated, in its application to raise prices in 2027 and 2028, that ATC will be developing some kind of fix to address this problem, as it stands today, customers across eastern and southern Wisconsin and Michigan’s UP are still at risk.
 
“CUB calls on American Transmission Company to move forward with a plan to ensure that customers in much of Wisconsin and across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula aren’t on the hook for costs for big power lines that are being built specifically to plug in Wisconsin data centers,” Content added “Only then will the tech companies live up to their commitments made recently at the White House in their ratepayer protection pledge that customers won’t be on the hook for network upgrades.”
 
 
 
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