Public Service Commission Nearly Doubles Monthly Fixed Charge for Alliant Electricity Customers

(Madison, WI)    In today’s open meeting, the Public Service Commission sharply hiked the monthly “fixed charge” that Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Power & Light residential electricity customers will face by 95%, from $7.67 per month up to $15 per month.

The “fixed charge” is the base fee which all customers must pay each month, no matter how much energy they use. Overall, Alliant’s residential customers will see their monthly electricity bills increase by 4-5%.

By contrast, the fixed charge that Alliant’s Iowa customers must pay every month remains at $10.50.

“Increasing the fixed charge will raise bills for customers that use smaller amounts of electricity monthly, such as seniors, apartment-dwellers, and energy-conscious customers including those who have installed solar panels,” said Tyler Huebner, RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director.

RENEW Wisconsin and a broad set of stakeholders have opposed hikes in fixed charges since 2014, when these requests first appeared.

“Wisconsin electricity customers now pay dramatically higher fixed charges than their counterparts in other states,” said Tyler Huebner, RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director. “Our testimony documented that the vast majority of state agencies nationally are either rejecting these fixed charge hikes outright, or granting much smaller increases, and only in Wisconsin are these fees being nearly doubled.”

As documented by RENEW in testimony, the increase in fixed charges granted to U.S. investor-owned utilities since 2014 has averaged about 14%. But for the five investor-owned utilities in Wisconsin, the average fixed charge increase has been 83%.

RENEW Wisconsin leads and accelerates the transformation to Wisconsin’s renewable energy future through advocacy, education, and collaboration. More information on RENEW’s web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.