Reworked Port Washington Transmission Line Could Be Wisconsin’s Costliest Ever
Citizens Utility Board says the Oracle-driven transmission build may be unprecedented in price and scale.
The Powerline Trail corridor. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
After regulators told them to go back to the drawing board last month, American Transmission Co. has reapplied to build a more than $2 billion transmission project that will serve the data center being built in Port Washington.
The utility filed a new application this week with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, or PSC, to build the Ozaukee County Distribution Interconnection Project. It would include new and rebuilt high-voltage power lines, upgrades to existing facilities and construction of up to five new substations.
The project would extend across Fond du Lac, Calumet, Manitowoc, Ozaukee, Sheboygan and Washington counties. It would serve Oracle’s data center campus in Port Washington.
American Transmission Co., or ATC, had to file the new application after the PSC last month unanimously voted to revoke a “completeness” determination for the company’s previous application to build the project. Regulators felt the application had seen such extensive revisions that it became difficult for officials and the public to adequately review.
It was a rare move for the utility regulator. Both ATC and a ratepayer watchdog said it was the first time they’d seen the commission revoke a completeness determination in recent decades, if ever.
ATC declined to provide an interview about the new application.
In a statement, Jared Winters, executive vice president and chief assets officer for ATC, said the company “substantially improved” its application since its last filing and made changes based on feedback from the commission and public.
He said that resulted in an updated project design and power line routes.
“The revised route configuration reflects additional feedback, analysis and routing and siting work, and we believe it represents the most responsible, buildable and electrically sound option for serving this significant new electric demand,” Winters stated. “We appreciate the input we’ve received and will continue that engagement as the PSCW review process moves forward.”
According to the application, the project would cost between $2.48 billion and $2.72 billion.
Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said the project could be the most expensive single transmission project that he’s seen in Wisconsin.
He said the large price tag underscores the massive energy needs of Oracle’s data center campus, which is expected to need 1,300 megawatts in its first phase and up to 3,500 megawatts in the future.
“Frankly, We Energies’ largest customer today is less than 100 megawatts, and, at the max, this could be 3,500 — it’s like putting 35 steel mills onto the farm fields just north of Port Washington,” Content said. “It takes eye-popping numbers like this to make people go, ‘Wow, this is really massive, and our energy world is changing dramatically.’”
Of the more than $2 billion price tag, the application says roughly $1.1 billion is associated with a system built at a substation in Decker to help stabilize the grid and manage large and shifting electricity demand from Oracle’s data center.
The application says Oracle will fund that system and “no costs” related to it “will be paid by other customers.”
Content said energy demand from data centers can vary at different times of day, and fluctuating power flows from data centers have caused reliability concerns in states like Virginia and Texas.
The system the regulatory filing says Oracle will pay for is meant to address that issue, Content said.
But whether the tech company ends up covering the more than $1 billion cost, he says, will be up to federal energy regulators who set transmission rates.
“Our overarching concern for Wisconsin customers is whether data centers will actually be billed correctly and accurately and completely for costs linked to data centers,” Content said. “It’s up to the feds, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to do that.”
ATC reapplies to build a more than $2B transmission project serving Port Washington data center was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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