THU AM News: Leaders of ATC, CUB differ on transmission line bill; PSC member says coming years will be ‘inflection point’ for the energy transition

— The head of American Transmission Company is urging state lawmakers to pass a controversial “right of first refusal” bill, while an advocate for Wisconsin electricity customers argues there’s no need to make the change. 

The legislation would give utilities already doing business in Wisconsin the right of first refusal to construct, own and maintain a new transmission line that connects to one of their existing lines. It recently cleared the Assembly but now faces a potential hurdle in the Senate. 

Speaking yesterday during an online panel hosted by Competitive Wisconsin, ATC President, CEO and Chair Teresa Mogensen said “we should pass it as quickly as possible” to speed up the process for approving new projects. 

“If you don’t have [ROFR] and you have high-voltage large lines that you have to compete for and run a competitive process, that adds a minimum of a year to the timing of figuring out who’s going to build it,” she said, adding outside operators’ unfamiliarity with Wisconsin’s regulatory process slows it down. 

But Citizens Utility Board Executive Director Tom Content said the state customer advocacy group is “part of a large coalition” that opposes the bill, even as Wisconsin’s major utilities line up in favor. 

“Competitive bidding is working in other states,” he said yesterday. “In recent months, courts in Iowa and the U.S. Supreme Court have weighed in that these things are unconstitutional. We need to actually have competitive bidding going forward. It’s already working in the MISO region.” 

The bill was drafted as billions of dollars in new transmission line work is coming to the state and region. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the regional electric grid that covers the upper Midwest, has approved $10 billion in new projects over the next 10 years, and Wisconsin is expected to see about $2 billion of that total. 

After the state Assembly passed the bill last week, Senate President Chris Kapenga referred the bill to the Natural Resources and Energy Committee, even though the Senate version has already cleared a committee chaired by the bill’s co-author, Sen. Julian Bradley, R-Franklin. 

Meanwhile, Natural Resources and Energy Committee Chair Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, has scheduled a public hearing Monday on the bill, which has split his GOP colleagues. He told WisPolitics on Tuesday he was still weighing options for the legislation. Without a committee vote, the bill would likely need support from two-thirds of the chamber to pull it to the floor for debate.

See more on these developments at WisPolitics.

— Panelists during the Competitive Wisconsin event weighed in on key energy issues such as rising demand from data and AI, phasing out fossil fuels and moving to alternative generation sources, with a PSC member calling the next five or six years a “critical inflection point.” 

Commissioner Kristy Nieto yesterday said electric grid demand is expected to ramp up over that period, even as a number of generation facilities are being retired amid the transition to more renewable sources. 

“I think that’s a really critical time frame and window for the big challenge that we’re all talking about,” she said, adding the actual transition period will extend far beyond that. 

Three Wisconsin utilities represented in the discussion — WEC Energy Group, Xcel Energy and the smaller Madison Gas & Electric — have set carbon reduction goals of 80% by 2030 and full carbon neutrality by 2050. 

“In the last five years, we’ve done two gigawatts of new renewable investment — which is huge,” said Bert Garvin, executive vice president of external affairs for WEC Energy Group. “Well the next five, if you look at our growth plan, our capital plan, it’s seven [gigawatts] that we’re either going to convert from coal to gas, new renewables, or acquire new renewables.” 

And MGE President, CEO and Chair Jeff Keebler yesterday said new technologies will be needed for the Madison-based utility to reach its 2050 goals. 

“I can see how we’re going to get to 2030. I can’t see how we’re going to get to 2050 yet,” he said. 

He noted MGE is spending more than $1 billion on clean energy investments over the 10-year period starting in 2015. 

“We started with expanding renewable generation, and we’ve done that, so now we’re in a phase that we’re going to be retiring assets,” he said. “We’re going to be replacing those with other assets, primarily clean energy.” 

One emerging option for meeting rising energy demand, a new technology known as small modular nuclear reactors, was dealt a blow late last year when Oregon-based NuScale Power ended a related project in Utah. Several panelists yesterday expressed disappointment about the failed project, with Garvin noting NuScale’s financing had fallen through as the project progressed. 

“Everyone is looking at small modular reactors, SMRs, because as we go through this transition there’s a lot of interest in nuclear,” he said. “But nobody on the management team wants to be version 001 … It’s very appealing. It’s just, who’s going to go first?” 

Given that hesitancy in the industry, Garvin said government intervention may be needed to kickstart SMR development. 

As utilities and other businesses explore new technologies to facilitate the industry-wide energy transition, other technological developments are putting additional strain on the grid. That includes data centers, which have a “huge” energy demand, according to Karl Hoesly, president of Xcel Energy Wisconsin and Michigan. 

“The race for AI superiority is certainly on,” he said yesterday. “I’ve heard some of the major players say if you’re not in the top three you can expect to be gobbled up. So they’re looking to bring these assets on as soon as possible.” 

Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group Executive Director Todd Stuart described this trend as a curveball, noting state energy grid load has been largely flat for about 20 years. Now that demand is on the rise at the same time that some generation assets are being retired, he said he’s worried about the impact of that growth.  

“I think there is a concern, when you look at reserve margins in certain areas of the state, where it’s like, okay, this is where some large units are about to be shut down … If we have significant growth, we could be really eating into some of the reserve margins in the next couple years,” he said. 

Stuart also urged caution about energy prices, noting “we’ve had high rates for 20 years straight” and calling on the PSC to accelerate its “resource adequacy” docket. 

WIEG yesterday issued a release arguing Wisconsin’s electricity rates “are clearly not competitive,” noting large manufacturers in the state pay more than their competitors in other Midwest states and more than the national average. 

“Once these plants shut down, things could be pretty tight given the load growth that might be happening,” Stuart said.  

— CUB’s Tom Content says the PSC has a “dire need” for more resources as the agency’s scope has widened over the years to include broadband and other topics. 

He and the other panelists yesterday agreed that providing the state Public Service Commission with more staff and resources would help the agency retain employees. 

“Is there a way that salary structures can be boosted over there? Because the commission has lost a lot of staff to the utilities over the years,” he said. 

Nieto said the agency’s permitting process is “fairly expeditious” with large projects taking a year at the most to move through it. But she said additional staff would be “incredibly helpful.” 

“That’s something that we’re looking at and discussing and pursuing now,” she said. 

PSC Chair Summer Strand noted any additional resources would have to be approved by the state Legislature. 

“That would be a partnership effort that we look forward to with all of you,” she said. 

Watch the full event.

— Gov. Tony Evers has signed SB 894, which provides $7.5 million in state money to BioForward Inc. to cover a match to a federal grant to develop Wisconsin’s biohealth and technology sectors.

BioForward CEO Lisa Johnson praised the move, saying the state’s support “along with that of private funding, is a strong indicator to the EDA that we are poised and ready to be a global tech hub in personalized medicine.”

See the release, and see more on the state tech hub effort here.

— Evers has announced $16 million in grant funding for housing rehabilitation projects benefiting low- and moderate-income households in Wisconsin. 

The state’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Housing program offers housing rehabilitation funds to seven regions of the state on a bi-annual basis, according to yesterday’s release. The programs provide no-interest and deferred payment loans to qualifying homeowners for “essential” home repairs, as well as down payment assistance for some homebuyers. 

Individual regions are getting between $1 million and $3.5 million each. 

Wisconsin gets CDBG funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the release shows. 

See more.

— Businesses and residents in a roughly 350-acre area in Downtown Milwaukee are likely to be affected by security measures for the 2024 Republican National Convention, according to a U.S. Secret Service map.  

The perimeter abuts the popular Water St. entertainment corridor to the east and 9th St. to the west. It stretches from Cherry St. to the north and Clybourn St. to the south, which runs along I-794. 

The map is tentative and seeks to inform members of the public who may be impacted by the convention. Both the security plan and official security perimeter have yet to be finalized. 

See the map here and the Secret Service release here

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment has released its Behavioral Health Strategy Guide, drawing on eight years of community-level mental health work. 

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