Xcel Energy has powered down its Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant to allow it to more quickly perform the repairs needed to permanently resolve a leak of water containing tritium at the plant. The company does not anticipate any impacts to customers’ electric service from powering the plant down early.

“While the leak has continued to pose no risk to the public or the environment, we determined the best course of action is to power down the plant and perform the permanent repairs immediately,” said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. “We are continuing to work with and inform our state, federal, city and county leaders in the process.”

A Madison Gas and subsidiary has announced that its newest wind farm is fully operational and delivering cost-effective, carbon-free energy to the electric grid. MGE owns 9.1 megawatts (MW) of the 92-MW wind farm in the Grant County towns of Clifton and Wingville.
 
“This is an exciting time for MGE as the Red Barn Wind Farm begins to generate cost-effective, carbon-free electricity to benefit all our electric customers,” said Jeff Keebler, MGE Chairman, President and CEO. “Red Barn is another important step in our ongoing transition to a more sustainable energy future. We are working aggressively to reduce our carbon emissions at least 80% from 2005 levels by the end of this decade and achieve net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. We have said since announcing our net-zero goal, if we can go further faster through partnerships with our customers and the evolution of new technologies, we will—and we are.”
 
Located on about 10,000 acres and consisting of 28 turbines, the Red Barn facility is expected to generate enough energy to serve about 50,000 households annually. MGE's share is expected to serve about 5,000 households each year.

Xcel Energy has signed an agreement with the Saint Paul Port Authority to build a new service center in northeast St. Paul that will allow the company to meet the needs of its customers and employees for many years to come.

The 20-acre property is in The Heights, a new development on the site of the former Hillcrest Golf Course. The purchase agreement follows an extensive search for a larger site to replace the Rice Street Service Center, which has helped Xcel Energy serve its customers reliably for a century but does not meet the company’s future operational needs.

The Board of Directors of WEC Energy has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 78 cents per share on the company's common stock.

The dividend is payable June 1, 2023, to stockholders of record on May 12, 2023. This marks the 323^rd consecutive quarter — dating back to 1942 — that the company will have paid a dividend to its stockholders.

WEC Energy Group has reported first-quarter 2023 earnings of $1.61 per share. However, the bottom line declined 10.1 percent from the year-ago quarter, down from $1.79 per share.

Operating revenues were $2 ,888.1 million. The top line also declined 0.69 percent from $2,908.1million in the year-ago quarter.

• First quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.76 in 2023 compared with $0.70 in 2022.
• Xcel Energy reaffirms 2023 EPS guidance of $3.30 to $3.40.

Xcel Energy has reported 2023 first quarter GAAP and ongoing earnings of $418 million, or $0.76 per share, compared with $380 million, or $0.70 per share in the same period in 2022.

Earnings reflect recovery of electric and natural gas infrastructure investment and other regulatory outcomes, partially offset by higher depreciation, operating and maintenance (O&M) expenses and interest charges.

Xcel Energy has filed a request with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to create a new program to expand assistance to lower-earning households who need additional assistance to pay their energy bills. The proposal for the new program followed several months of discussion and coordination with the Citizens Utility Board.

The company’s proposal would make it the first utility in Wisconsin to offer a targeted assistance program and would increase the total amount of income-qualified support by fifty percent or an estimated five million dollars annually. As part of the new program, customers who already receive assistance from the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program would be automatically enrolled.

Two Republican state lawmakers want to give local governments more say over wind turbine projects. Citing public health concerns, Senator Andre Jacque and Representative Ty Boden seek co-sponsors on a bill to restore the ability of towns and counties to impose restrictions on new turbine projects that are more restrictive than Public Service Commission rules.

A sponsorship memo cites the January collapse of a wind turbine in Dodge County, and notes turbine projects may potentially not be a good fit in some areas given the density of rural homes.

The Wisconsin Legislature kicked off it’s 2023-24 biennial session in late January and is currently busy reworking the State Budget. The revised Budget is expected to be adopted by the Legislature by the end of the fiscal year – June 30, 2023. Then, the Legislature will return to Madison in September to consider individual bills including at least two proposals that could impact your utility investments.

WEC Energy has announced that the company will lead a pilot project at its Valley Power Plant in Milwaukee to test a new form of long-duration energy storage. WEC Energy Group is collaborating with EPRI, an independent, nonprofit energy research and development institute, and CMBlu Energy, the developer and manufacturer of the long-duration battery based in California and Germany. This 1-to-2-megawatt-hour pilot project will be one of the first to test this type of energy storage system on the U.S. electric grid.

Foxconn and We Energies 2,000 panels on the Taiwan-based company’s Mount Pleasant campus. Foxconn Technology Group describes the effort as “one of the largest nonresidential solar projects in Racine County” and said it is “committed to integrating green and sustainable practices throughout our operations.”

“As Foxconn’s operations in Wisconsin expand in response to market demand, the presence of renewable energy resources within the park demonstrates our commitment to environmental stewardship across the manufacturing supply chain to our customers and the community,” the company’s statement said. We Energies will install, own and maintain the 1-megawatt project which is capable of producing enough energy to power 300 homes. Renderings show the solar panels being installed around retention ponds at the company’s Mount Pleasant campus.

Xcel Energy has reported on steps taken to contain and manage a water leak detected by routine groundwater monitoring systems at its Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant late last year. Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment.

Xcel Energy notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as the state, on November 22, 2022, the day the leak was confirmed. The company has since coordinated regularly with state and federal regulators, as well as local officials.

• Provides $10 million for “clean energy” job training and reemployment programs.
• Requires the Public Service Commission to establish the social cost of carbon and requires the commission to consider the social cost of carbon when evaluating utility construction applications.
• Allows utilities to securitize the entire remaining unpaid balance of a retiring power plant. Currently, only the unpaid balance of pollution control equipment may be securitized.
• Establishes the Office of Environmental Justice to, in part, perform a climate risk assessment and create a resilience plan for state agencies.
• Requires municipal comprehensive plans, local hazard mitigation plans and community health assessments to address the impact of climate change.
• Provides $5 million GPR over the biennium to support a clean energy small business incubator.
• Establishes the Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy and creates a one-time $4 million GPR clean energy grant program.
• Provides $500,000 SEG over the biennium to create a biodigester planning grant program.
• Creates a sales and use tax exemption for property used primarily to store or facilitate the storage of energy produced by a solar, wind, or biogas renewable energy system for an anticipated reduction in tax revenue of $4.2 million over the biennium.
• Establishes a workgroup to develop a “stretch energy code” for Wisconsin.

It is likely many of these items will be removed or modified by the Legislature when it receives the Budget Bill.

The abrupt shut down of privately owned Sun Badger Solar  has left customers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota wondering if their solar installations will be finished or if they will lose deposits for work that was never started.

Customers have lodged dozens of complaints with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and Wisconsin Better Business Bureau, and law enforcement agencies in multiple communities are investigating customers' complaints of fraud. Furloughed employees of the Waukesha company wonder, without much hope, if they'll be called back or paid for work they did before the company as its finances unraveled.

Gov. Tony Evers has announced his appointment of Summer Strand to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC). The appointment fills a vacancy created by the resignation of Ellen Nowak, which was effective March 1. This appointment was effective March 2, 2023, for a six-year term expiring in 2029.

Xcel Energy has announced that Feed My People Food Bank is the recipient of a $5,000 grant as part of the Xcel Energy Foundation’s 2022 Employee Choice Grant Award. Feed My People received the most votes from Wisconsin and Michigan employees. Each year, employees nominate nonprofits for the award, and all employees statewide then vote for a single finalist.

 “Xcel Energy coworkers are passionate about community service and supporting organizations that make a difference. We were delighted to receive over 30 nominations for this year’s award and know this grant will support Feed My People’s mission to ensure no one goes hungry,” said Karl Hoesly, President of Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. 

WEC Energy Group has announced an agreement to acquire an eighty percent ownership in a large solar project in Texas. 
The company says it will be spending about $250 million on the Samson I Solar Energy Center, located about 140 miles northeast of Dallas. The facility began commercial operation in May 2022 and is currently covered by a long-term power purchase agreement with AT&T, according to a release. 

“The Samson Solar project is an exciting addition to our Infrastructure business and highlights our continued investment in affordable, reliable and clean energy,” WEC Energy Group Executive Chairman Gale Klappa said in a statement. “This project will help one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies meet their clean energy needs for years to come.” 

Xcel Energy and Bayfield County have signed an agreement to partner to construct Wisconsin’s first microgrid under an innovative new utility program. Through Xcel Energy’s EMPOWER Resiliency program, Bayfield County in far northern Wisconsin, will build a microgrid to enhance the county’s emergency services and response system, ensuring it is capable of operating in the event of a utility outage without interruption.

Xcel Energy was the first utility in Wisconsin to begin offering a comprehensive program to support microgrids and other resiliency projects for large business customers and governmental entities who require a higher than standard service reliability. The program is designed to be technology agnostic and allows customers to choose resiliency options to best meet their needs.