We Energies on price hikes

If you were with us at the top of Fox 6 Now at noon, we took you out to the Common Council meeting. Of course, they had their budget adoption meeting. And one of the big kind of topics up for discussion was WeEnergy. So we did ask WeEnergy if they would join us here on Fox 6 Now. And Brendan Conway joining us this afternoon. Brendan, I wanted to start with kind of the announcement made yesterday that WeEnergy's rate hike. was approved by Wisconsin regulators. Why did you guys feel like you needed to raise the rate here and how is this really going to impact individual customers? Yeah, so every two years, we're required to go in front of the Public Service Commission to discuss what our costs will be for the following two years. So in this case, it was for 2027 and 2028. That process started in April. So this is about an eight-month process that wrapped up yesterday, a really public, long, engaged process where changes were made. What the Public Service Commission did though yesterday was they confirmed that Yes, we energies continue investing in new Wisconsin based energy to make sure that we have the reliable energy we need. Continue to invest in trimming trees, burying power lines, adding new equipment because we know Wisconsin's weather is getting stronger, more severe. And then also, yes, confirming that no cost to serve data centers are being shifted to other customers. Those are all key priorities for us and they're all things that the Public Service Commission approved last night. We appreciate that. And we're just continuing to focus every single day, keeping bills as low as possible. Making sure we have reliable energy. I mean, we're heading into those months where it's going to be really, really cold. We need to make sure that on those really cold days, those windy days, the customers have that heat they rely on and that the bills are as low as possible. We're focused on that and we appreciate the Public Service Commission's vote of approval. Of course, the big question I think this morning for and all day for WeEnergy's customers is, well, how much is this rate hike? How big will this impact be for me? And I know right now you have some preliminary estimates, but how will this kind of impact these customers? Yeah, I mean, it was about an 11-hour discussion yesterday. So it usually takes about a month for us to get the written order, and that has the final rates. But we always try to do a preliminary estimate based on that long discussion. And we expect it to be about $7 to $8 more per month for a typical residential customer in 2027. And again, what that's doing is going to support the new project, energy projects, mainly the Public Service Commission has already approved and supporting our continued efforts to trim trees, bury power lines, do the reliability efforts that we know our customers care so much about. I don't think this is a surprise to you, Brendan, but obviously people upset hearing that there's another rate hike after years of these rate hikes. I guess, why was this important for you guys to do now, especially in a time where it feels like a lot of people are struggling financially? Yeah, as I mentioned, so we're required to every two years go in and look forward to our rates. So to be very clear, the biggest part of our rate filing were renewable energy projects that the Public Service Commission had already approved years and years ago. The way it works in Wisconsin is you get approval to build those plants, you build them, but they don't go into rates until they start serving customers. So the biggest portion of our requests were from projects that That had already been. Approved and we're just finally built. The good news is that yes, the cost of those projects are going into rates now, but over the long term, we're expecting those. We're going to save customers significant amounts of money. Then as opposed if we had just done nothing at all and kept their older, less efficient plants running because those plants need billions of dollars over the long term, they would have needed. To fix them, to keep them up and running. Instead, we're going to be able to retire those plants and be able to transition to this new cleaner energy, this low carbon natural gas energy. And that really is going to save customers money over the long term. But we also understand people have concerns about bills, right? We are not ignoring that whatsoever. Number one. Our rate filing included hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel cost savings, earnings sharing, and that's going to continue. We also want to stress to all of our customers, if you have concerns, if you have questions, contact us. We help secure more than $100 million in federal funding for Wisconsin this year for heating assistance. We have budget billing, payment plans. We are so many ways that we are working with our customers every single day, and that's going to continue as we head into the winter. Yeah. And again, I mean, this kind of price hike is component one of the conversation, because as I mentioned today at noon, when Fox 6 now started, we were listening in on the Common Council where they did approve a study to now potentially look at taking over, you know, We Energies having a city owned kind of utility company here. What's your reaction to all of that, Brendan? Yeah, I mean, it's a discussion that some people in City Hall have been having this year. You know, it's a discussion we haven't really been invited to be part of, which I think, you know, we wish we were, because there's a lot of facts that have been stated as they have this discussion that aren't really true. You know, a number of cities have tried this in recent years. It pops up occasionally. And what we have found in every single situation is. These cities, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. In this case, City Milwaukee is looking to spend about $1.3 million to study if they should take over their local utility. And in the end, they're gonna find that it's gonna probably cost billions and billions of dollars. And then when they go to voters, voters are likely gonna reject it. That just happened this week. Ann Arbor, Michigan, a very liberal city, they had been studying this issue. They'd spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Voters on Tuesday there rejected that. So these I didn't hear the city council today whatsoever. I didn't hear these discussions. I also didn't hear them talk about how we're working with the city all the time. A month ago, we unveiled, I should say in September, we unveiled the largest solar project in city Milwaukee history. A project we work closely with the city council and the mayor's office on. I heard a lot of criticism of WeEnergies about our renewable energy efforts. I didn't hear any acknowledgement of all the things we're doing. It's okay. We don't need to be praised. But there was a lot of facts that were missing from that discussion. That said. They're going to move forward that feasibility study. Our focus is not on, you know, a feasibility study. Our focus is on serving our customers every single day with the reliable energy they need. We know that's the most important thing, and that's going to continue for us. So to your point here, for a long time, this felt like just a discussion. Maybe you could call it a pipe dream. Now, today, there's some action taken to at least do this study. Does it feel like this is kind of reality now setting in? Or for you, do you think it's still not too much of a concern when you compare it to other cities who have done the same thing? Yeah, I mean, we suspected it could get to this point. And for us, it's not about a concern or not a concern, right? I think we would have appreciated the opportunity to talk with the city before they took this vote. I think that would have been helpful for everyone, including the taxpayers in Milwaukee, who are now going to spend $1.3 million on this feasibility study. But that said, you know, it's not something we spend a lot of time thinking about, because what we're doing every single day is we have 2.2 million customers. We have winter coming. We just came out of summer. We're building new. Clean renewable energy, we're helping businesses expand, you know, helping homeowners save money. That's what our focus is on every day, not something that's happening at City Hall. That's a bit of a distraction. Okay, so I also want to give you the chance to respond here, because to your point, WeEnergy's not at the meeting today. And a big point of contention and conversation here, and at one point, chance, was people over profits. It feels like they're saying that you guys are making profit at the expense of customers who are really forced to have to have WeEnergy's forced to this regulated monopoly. What's your response to that, Brendan? Yeah, like all utilities or like nearly all utilities in the United States, we're what's called an investor owned utility. But that shouldn't be a dirty word. In fact, it's a good thing because we have investors who invest in the state. They give us money to build new power plants to make sure we have the latest technology so we can keep the lights on, that we can have power poles that withstand 60, 70 mile per hour winds. Those are investments they make. And as part of that, as part of the regulatory compact, We serve all customers in our service territory. Gladly do so, by the way. And as part of that, we're regulated by the state of Wisconsin. And so that's what's part of this process. It's not a dirty word. We're a regulated utility. We are proud to be one because we serve our customers. We do it so well. Well, you know, the profit portion is regulators say, well, you need to attract a new investment, right? People across the globe who invest in utilities, they don't just give you money to invest in a community they don't live in for fun. They expect that they may have a. A rate of return that is reasonable. Regulators help determine what that reasonable amount is. And by the way, this is how the state of Wisconsin has worked for well over 100 years. It's how almost all utilities across the United States operate. It's a model that makes sure that reliability is first and that we're able to invest. And at a time when things are changing so much, the weather is getting stronger, we need to be able to make those investments. And those people who invest in our company, our shareholders, they help that we can do that in the most cost-effective way possible. Absolutely. Again, I just want to give you the chance to say whatever you would like to say to, you know, we energy's customers today, maybe frustrated over the news here of a rate hike or now zooming in and learning more about this, this study that Common Council is launching. Just what's your main message you want to share, Brendan? Yeah, I mean, listen, we wish that costs were flat across the globe since 2020. I mean, that's really been what's driving this. We have been doing a lot of construction that in the long term, again, is going to save customers money as we invest in more renewable, low carbon energy. But the cost of construction since 2020 is up a lot. If you've done any construction, whether around your home, your business, you'll see what it is. The cost of steel and concrete, solar panels, the equipment we use in our power plants and And to keep the lights on the cost that has gone up. Quite a bit over the last six years. And despite all of that, our costs, our rate increases since 2020 are still even with inflation. So despite the fact that we're dealing with some of the most inflationary products, we're still able to keep our costs down. Agreed, though, no one wants to see costs going up, which is why we're working so hard to keep bills low and offering our customers. Any sort of assistance we can. I mean, just this just this month. So it's showing up in bills this month. But in October, our fuel cost adjustment saved customers about 30 million dollars in fuel cost savings. We expect to maybe have fuel cost savings again next year because the cost of natural gas has been lower than anticipated. It's a global commodity. But when it's when it's lower than we anticipate, those savings go back to our customers. So we're always looking for ways to save our customers money to make sure we can serve them reliably. And that's going to continue. Yeah. And again, I think it's helpful for our viewers here hearing from Common Council now getting to hear from WeEnergies on this topic. Well, I kind of want to switch the topic ever so slightly, Brendan, while we have you, because we were just talking about holiday music and Christmas music. And of course, WeEnergies plays a pretty big role in a beloved tradition, the cookie book. And there's a way to get our hands on that tomorrow. Tell me more. Yeah, this is the 98th year or 90th anniversary of our The We Energy's cookie book. We hear every year people say the holiday season doesn't start until we get our hands on a cookie book. And so tomorrow's our big event. We've been doing pickup events all week. We had it online started on Monday, but tomorrow's the big one at American Family Field from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We plan to Tens of thousands of books over the course of the two weeks or so that we do this across the state. We'll give away more than 200,000 books. We love to see our customers come out. We just have one request of them. Come out with a little festive spirit. We're all gonna be out there. It's all volunteers. We're out there having fun. We'll deal with the weather. I've been out there when it's cold, I've been out there when it's hot, when it's raining. Tomorrow looks a little chilly, but it's gonna be okay. So bring us a little bit of holiday spirit. We know some people get there early. There are cars that almost every year line up at around 6 AM. They want to be the first one. People treat this as a holiday tradition. It's so fun to hear those stories they tell us. I'm here with my grandmother, my children, maybe their children, two, three, four generations in the same car, getting cookie books. So come out tomorrow from 9 to 1, American Family Field. It's maybe not the same as the Brewers winning the World Series, but we think it's a really close second. Does that mean you're taking my side in the argument my producer and I are having this afternoon? Are you okay with Christmas music now, or are you waiting until after Thanksgiving? Listen, once the We Energy's cookie book comes out, it's great. You know, and my youngest daughter, she's 12 years old, and she. is one of those Christmas people all the time. She always kind of makes a joke, like after 4th of July. So I have to share her enthusiasm. It's so wonderful. You know, I will say that you listen to it for two months. Then by the 26th, we can move on. But I would say leading into the holiday, it definitely gets me in the spirit. You know, I love, I absolutely love Christmas music. And, you know, let's hear some that people can have it playing out their cars tomorrow. And we'll be singing along. We'll have some festive spirits out there. And you can bring your festive energy as well. We love to hear it. And of course, yes, bring the holiday spirit and maybe the layers because it will be just a little bit chilly, but you can get your hands on the WeEnergies cookie book. Brendan, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us this afternoon. Okay, thanks, Ellie. If I don't talk to you, happy holidays. Same to you. Happy holidays. Love to hear it again. Brendan Conway there with WeEnergies joining us. I think it's always important, you know, we bring you both sides of a conversation and a discussion there. So I'm grateful that he would hop on.