We Energies is asking state utility regulators to approve special rates for data centers that would require those users to pay for infrastructure built for their developments.
In an application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin this week, the utility outlined rate proposals for customers that are expected to need enough energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes each year.
It’s the first attempt to craft a rate structure for data center-scale customers in Wisconsin. Data centers are among the most “energy intensive” types of buildings, using 10 to 50 times more energy per floor space than a typical commercial office building.
Several data centers have been planned within We Energies’ service territory. Microsoft is developing a more than $3.3 billion data center campus in Mount Pleasant, with additional plans for another site in Kenosha. Data center developer Cloverleaf Infrastructure has another project planned in Port Washington.
Under the proposal, customers with a load of at least 500 megawatts, enough energy to power more than 300,000 homes annually, would agree to be responsible for costs related to new resources that the utility builds to meet their demand.
Resource agreements with those “very large customers” would be “effective for the depreciable life of the resource, except for wind or solar resources which will have a term of 20 years or more,” We Energies said in its application.
We Energies asked regulators to approve the proposal by the end of the year. The utility has already applied to build new generation resources to support Microsoft and other industrial development in southeast Wisconsin. The state commission is reviewing plans for more than $2 billion in natural gas infrastructure, including new plants in Oak Creek and Kenosha County.