News of the Day August 3, 2026
ATC, We Energies Ask Regulators to Approve Data Center Cost Agreement

A transmission utility has filed plans with state and federal regulators aimed at shielding customers from transmission costs tied to data centers.

Late last month, American Transmission Company and We Energies filed an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin seeking approval of a transmission charge agreement for Microsoft’s data center in Mount Pleasant.

It comes as ATC is planning more than $2 billion in transmission infrastructure projects tied to data center developments across Wisconsin. Those range from new high-voltage power lines and substations to upgrades to existing facilities.

The proposal is the first in a series of agreements aimed at making sure customers aren’t on the hook for transmission costs for data center projects, including others in Port Washington and Beaver Dam.

Bob McKee, director of interconnection solutions at ATC, said the company requires minimum transmission charge agreements when transmission construction costs exceed $100 million or when transmission facilities are designed to serve more than 100 megawatts of demand.

“We’ve had other ways to protect customers from costs associated with the transmission capacity requested for a specific large load project, like a data center,” he said. “This is the newest protection. This is just another mechanism that we’ve put in place after gauging, over time, developments in our footprint.”

In a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, ATC said the agreement is designed to protect customers as energy needs ramp up for Microsoft’s project in Racine County and if the project ends up using less transmission capacity than planned.

Under the terms of the agreement, the PSC application says ATC will calculate a minimum transmission charge that would require We Energies to pay for the full amount of transmission capacity requested for the project, even if Microsoft ultimately uses less capacity than anticipated.

“It starts charging that utility for this transmission capacity that they requested for their customer when those facilities go in service, not necessarily when they start using it,” McKee said.