Oracle is suing the Public Service Commission in a bid to roll back credit rating requirements imposed by regulators on data center customers. 

Commissioners in an April decision voted to require very large customers of We Energies to either post collateral for new power plants built to serve their energy needs or meet stringent credit rating, liquidity and tangible asset requirements. 

In a petition filed Friday in Ozaukee County Circuit Court, the tech giant is asking for the commissioners’ decision to be reversed and the credit rating requirement lowered to the standard initially proposed by We Energies’ parent company, WEC Energy Group.

Port Washington, in Ozaukee County, is the site of a data center campus being built to serve Oracle and others.

The ask includes restoring a provision that would allow WEC Energy Group to exempt Oracle from the liquidity and asset tests, which the tech company has said it would be unable to meet. 

Oracle argues commissioners’ decision to raise the standard to qualify for the exemption from a BBB to an A- credit rating was made based on non-record evidence, exceeded regulators’ jurisdiction and failed to consider the “significant, adverse impacts” its changes would have on Oracle and other large customers.

Oracle has said it would incur over $100 million in bank fees annually in order to financially guarantee it can pay the whole value of the new generation built to serve its data center power use – which it places at around $7 billion. 

Oracle’s petition essentially repeats an earlier request made by the tech company, WEC Energy Group and the developers of the Port Washington data center – where Oracle is the primary tenant – for a rehearing in the PSC’s case. 

In that request, Oracle offered to put up 10% of the collateral it would currently be required to post, or $700 million. 

The tech company said in its legal filing that it will stay its request for judicial review if the PSC elects to rehear the case. 

Consumer advocates and environmental groups that intervened in the PSC’s case have argued against lowering the financial security standards.

In a statement released Monday, before Oracle’s lawsuit was first reported, Clean Wisconsin attorney Brett Korte argued the stringent financial security standards placed on data centers protected We Energies’ other customers. 

“We Energies, (data center developer) Vantage and Oracle want to lower the collateral required because Oracle may have trouble meeting those requirements,” Korte said. “This shows the high risks that providing utility service to Oracle entails, and it’s exactly why the protections adopted by the Commission are necessary.”