After a 10-hour marathon session, the Public Service Commission pushed back on the proposed rate increase while recognizing the affordability concerns of We Energies customers worried about year-after-year rate hikes.
The two-year original proposal would have raised residential electricity rates an average of $22 a month in the second year. We Energies now estimates an average monthly increase of $7 to $8 starting Jan. 1, and another $6 to $7 per month in 2028, or about $13 to $15 a month in year two.
Commissioners sent a message about the balance between a utility's financial needs and consumer costs.
"We must establish rates that are sufficient to allow the utility to provide adequate service and maintain its financial integrity, and yes, earn a profit, but rates cannot be so high that they become unjust or oppressive to consumers," Public Service Commissioner Kristy Nieto said.
While the decision was a win for customers, Tom Content, executive director at the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin and an advocate for affordable rates, said commissioners could have done more.
"We think they made progress, but they could have gone further in some ways. I mean, they reduced the profit, that was a big one, more than they, they actually reduced it, more than they have in prior years," Content said.
Content said We Energies enjoys record profits and new highs for its stock this year, but said commissioners were unlikely to reject the entire proposed increase.
"We Energies has some unique circumstances, that make it harder to go all the way to zero, as much as we'd want that, we wanted to bring it down at least to the inflate to keep it on par with inflation," Content said.
We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway said the utility is focused on keeping bills low while investing in future energy needs, trimming trees and burying power lines to keep the lights on when storms hit.
When asked whether the PSC seemed to be saying loud and clear that affordability is a real issue, Conway said the company shares that goal.
"Yes, we agree certainly that keeping customers' bills as low as possible is something we're working on every day," Conway said.
Conway said every rate request process is a balancing act.
"How can we make sure we can continue to attract the investments needed to build new solar, wind, battery storage projects, new state of the art natural gas generation, but also keeping customer bills low, and it's something the Public Service Commission looks at," Conway said.
This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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