An investigative report released this morning by Wisconsin Watch finds that shuttered power plants are on track to cost Wisconsin ratepayers nearly $1 billion by the end of 2026. At the same time, the state is facing unprecedented pressure to generate new electricity for data centers—raising the risk of another $1 billion in future “stranded assets.”
This reporting comes as the Legislature considers community solar legislation (SB 559 and AB 493), which would lower energy bills, strengthen the grid, and return decision-making power to local communities. The bill establishes a community solar program that allows farmers and developers to build small-scale projects—typically 20 to 30 acres—that neighbors can subscribe to and save 10% on their monthly utility bill. This approach expands access to solar, the cheapest form of electricity, avoids large-scale developments, and does so with zero taxpayer dollars.
Key Points from Wisconsin Watch:
- In fact, residential and business utility customers throughout Wisconsin owe nearly $1 billion on “stranded assets” — power plants like Pleasant Prairie that have been or will soon be shut down, a Wisconsin Watch investigation found.
That total will likely grow over the next five years with additional coal plants scheduled to cease operations.
Customers must pay not only for the debt taken on to build and upgrade the plants themselves, but also an essentially guaranteed rate of return for their utility company owners, long after the plants stop generating revenue themselves.
- Utilities “profit off of everything they build or acquire,” Stuart said, “and so there is a strong motivation to put steel in the ground and perhaps to even overbuild.”
- When the Public Service Commission approves construction of a new power plant, it allows the utility company to levy electricity rates high enough to recover its investment plus the specified rate of return — even after a plant becomes a stranded asset.
- “We give them this license to have a monopoly, but the challenge is there’s no incentive for them to do the least-cost option,” Content said. “So, in terms of building new plants, there’s an incentive to build more … and there’s incentive to build too much.”
Full story from Wisconsin Watch here.
