PSC Requires Alliant Energy to Disclose Data Center Rates

State regulators required Alliant Energy to resubmit documents with fewer redactions as it seeks approval for custom electric rates for Meta’s large data center campus in Beaver Dam.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin held public hearings in the case this week. During a hearing between the parties on Thursday, Michael Newmark, an administrative law judge for the commission, took issue with the level of redactions on documents submitted in the case.

“It seemed like the redactions were not going to allow us to do sort of the basic functions of open government,” he said.

Last year, Alliant Energy filed an application with the PSC for an Individual Contract Rate Agreement for the Beaver Dam data center. But the heavily redacted document hid details from the public, including the amount of energy the project is expected to use.

The PSC required Alliant to file a revised version of its application by 4 p.m. Friday. The agency is now reviewing the new version to analyze the redactions and justifications from the utility before moving forward.

The revised application names the customer as Degas LLC, an alias Meta used in developing the project before going public in November. Degas had previously been named by other parties in the case.

The new application shows Alliant will supply up to 220 megawatts to the data center campus. The term of the agreement is for 10 years. At the end of that term, Alliant and Meta can renegotiate rates or transition to a standard rate if approved by regulators.

In the original documents, the length of the agreement and the amount of power the project could use were blacked out.

The utility must also refile its data request responses, discovery responses, testimony and exhibits with fewer redactions, but that will occur at a later date. The documents could be rejected again and Alliant Energy could be asked to re-file again with even fewer redactions until commission staff is satisfied.

“Commission staff requested these changes to ensure greater public transparency in this proceeding,” a PSC spokesperson said in a statement.

The public comment period has also been extended to March 9, but it may be extended further after new information becomes available.

Attorney David Zoppo, who represented Alliant Energy in the hearing Thursday, said the redactions in the initial application weren’t “coming from a place of we’re trying to be secretive.”

“They’re coming from a place of if we have another deal like this in the future, we want to make sure that we get our customers the best deal and we also want to make sure that we’re protecting the customer’s information,” he said.

After Newmark raised concerns about the redactions, the parties went into closed session to discuss them.

When the meeting came out of closed session, Zoppo said Alliant would commit to disclose as much as it can and resubmit the application by the end of the business day Friday.

“We would endeavor in good faith basically to work with our customer to remove as many redactions as possible from those sections of the agreement that we discussed during the closed session,” he said.

Newmark said reducing the number of redactions would allow the public to better scrutinize the commission’s decision-making process and ensure the commission has a record that will be “defensible in court and in the court of public opinion.”

“The way the application was filed and the extent of redactions there bleeds into how the testimony is presented and then will also then affect how the commission can discuss the case in open meeting and then how the final decision gets written,” he said.

Sophia Rogers, an attorney for the PSC, said in the meeting that commission staff “failed to recognize just how over-redacted the application really was” when they initially allowed it to move forward.

“Looking back with the benefit of hindsight and the full development of the record, it’s abundantly clear that we need to resolve these issues,” she said.

Rogers also said commission staff will be able to complete its review in under 30 days.

Members of the public took issue with the redactions during a pair of hearings on Tuesday.

“We don’t even have the information on which to provide comments as to whether this is protecting our interest,” said Madison resident Don Ferber. “Again I think that’s unacceptable and should not occur.”

Listen to the WPR report

PSC requires Alliant Energy file new application with fewer redactions for data center rates was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.