We Energies filed applications totalling more than $5.5 billion in new energy projects to meet Wisconsin’s data center project needs, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Altogether, nine major energy project applications were filed with the Public Service Commission. Approval would add about three gigawatts of energy to the overall power grid, which equals the power of about two million homes.
The energy is mostly to help power data centers, something Wisconsin has become a hotbed for, with some controversy over their water and power usage.
We Energies classifies data centers under its new “very large” energy customers category. We Energies and WEC Energy Group expect data centers in southeast Wisconsin to account for more than half of an expected 3.3 gigawatts of increased energy demand by 2030.
Recently, Microsoft began a data center project, as has a company in Port Washington. Meta is building a data center campus in Beaver Dam as well.
The ruling on the applications for the nine projects is expected to take 12 to 18 months.
