(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s recent Public Service Commission approvals of energy rates for Alliant Energy and Xcel Energy will amount to a $300 million increase in rates for residential customers over the next two years, according to a Public Service Commission report.
That includes $156.4 million in a rate settlement for Alliant Energy and $148.3 million in rates for Xcel.
The group is set to vote on an increase for Madison Gas and Electric on Thursday. The increases will go into effect Jan. 1. Both utilities were recently approved to hold 9.8% profit margins for investors.
The commission reviews the company’s rate increase requests and reasoning and then approves the measure. In the case of Alliant, the settlement was between Alliant, Blacks for Political and Social Action of Dane County, Inc., Clean Wisconsin, Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 965, RENEW Wisconsin, Walmart and Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group.
“CUB deliberates carefully before agreeing to settle a rate case, as opposed to litigating all the way to the end,” CUB Executive Director Tom Content said. “In this year’s Alliant case, our team’s review concluded that, while some increases were unavoidable, the settlement amount is well below Aliant’s ask.”
Alliant has requested a $128.1 million increase for 2026 while $76.6 million was approved and the cumulative requested increase for 2027 was $215.7 million with $156.4 million approved.
The increase was mainly $144.1 million for electric rate increases while the natural gas increase amounted to $12.3 million for the two years.
“The wins achieved for Alliant Energy customers in the settlement were significant: Reduction in the size of the overall increase vs. the amount requested in March, creation of new and innovative programs to help customers use energy more efficiently and save money and commitment for stepped-up financial support from Alliant Energy shareholders to customers who are struggling the most to pay energy bills,” Content said.
Xcel requested $113.8 million in the first year and $175.1 million of cumulative increase over the two years and was granted $85.9 million in 2026 and $148.3 million cumulative in 2027.
That included $126.1 million in electric increases and $22.2 million for gas.
Content felt that there were “clear missed opportunities for more savings.”
“We argued strongly that the utility’s profit should have been reduced from 9.8%,” Content said. “After all, the same utility on the other side of the river in Minnesota is able to operate a healthy utility at a much lower profit, 9.25%.
“And the PSC should have gone further to push board of directors’ costs to shareholders rather than to customers. Boards of directors are in service to shareholders, and the utility was asked to demonstrate how customers benefit from the board experiences and it did not do so.”
