The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on Thursday approved We Energies’ $1.5 billion plan to build a new natural gas power plant in Oak Creek and a reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) natural gas power plant in the Kenosha County town of Paris.
The facilities are expected to generate more than 1,200 megawatts of combined energy. Both projects are planned to accommodate a surge in data center development in the area and We Energies’ efforts to transition to carbon neutral energy production by 2050.
“The commission’s decision today is an important next step in our efforts to meet growing electric demand across southeast Wisconsin,” said We Energies’ president Mike Hooper in a press release. “We are making the grid cleaner and greener while ensuring the lights stay on — no matter the weather — because we know that’s what matters most to our customers.”
We Energies’ new natural gas power plant planned for Oak Creek will be built at the Oak Creek Generating Site west of the existing coal-powered Oak Creek Power Plant and Elm Road Generating Station. The plant will generate 1,100 megawatts and will cost about $1.2 billion.
PSC Commissioners unanimously approved plans for the construction of Oak Creek’s plant with conditions including the immediate disclaimer of a decrease in overall energy need and the completion of a more robust demand response program.
We Energies’ RICE power plant project in the town of Paris will supply the area with 128 additional megawatts and will cost about $280 million.
PSC commissioners unanimously approved the Paris project also, under the condition that the location changes. Its new site will be southeast of 1st Street and 172nd Avenue, near an existing We Energies electric substation. The decision to change the Paris site will increase the timeline of the build by one year and increase the cost by $17 million to $23 million.
The construction of these power plants will largely support the incoming data centers in the area, most notably Microsoft’s $3.3 billion data center campus which is under construction in Mount Pleasant. The sprawling 240-acre campus is planned to house four 250,000-square-foot, single-story buildings, totaling an annual need of 450 megawatts.
The PSC commissioners’ approval qualifying the projects as “within the public interest” came with significant opposition.
The scale of the projects, their locations, and their natural gas initiatives are among the most contended issues within the proposal.
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