Two of Wisconsin’s largest utilities – We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) – are seeking state regulators’ approval for combined gas and electric rate hikes totaling $480 million and $165 million, respectively, as their profits soar and customers struggle to keep up with rising bills.

Under their proposed rate increases, both We Energies and WPS would charge customers more for shareholder profits as well as millions of dollars for expenses related to their boards of directors and to trade groups that advocate for utility interests. The utilities, both subsidiaries of WEC Energy, last secured approval to raise rates in 2024.

The rate hikes coincide with a rise in WEC’s profits. Last year, WEC reported $1.6 billion in profits, up from $1.5 billion in 2024 and $1.3 billion in 2023. WEC reported profits of $1.1 billion in the first six months of 2026, compared to $969.6 million in the first six months of 2025. WEC profits have exceeded $1 billion every year since 2017. 

Six consecutive years of We Energies and WPS rate increases have put financial pressure on Wisconsin families. While the share of customers’ bills that goes toward utility profits has grown, so has the strain on customers. The number of disconnections for both utilities combined nearly doubled between 2021 and 2025, according to annual disclosures filed with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), the state utility regulator.  

As rates and profits have risen, so has executive pay. WEC CEO Scott Lauber received $12.2 million in compensation in 2025 after receiving $10.9 million in 2024 and $9.6 million in 2023, a 27% increase over two years. 

We Energies is the umbrella name for Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCO) and Wisconsin Gas, which provide service to approximately 1,166,000 electric customers and 1,171,000 gas customers across the state of Wisconsin, including in Milwaukee and much of southeastern Wisconsin. WPS has approximately 474,000 electric customers and 350,000 gas customers in northeastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay.

We Energies and WPS seek greater profits

Among the costliest components of both We Energies and WPS rate increase proposals is an increase to return on equity, known as ROE, which is a primary driver for how much profit utilities charge to customers.   

Both utilities have asked the PSC to authorize ROE increases, from 9.8% to 9.9%. Intervenors in the case, including Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin (CUB), a prominent ratepayer advocate in the state, have said a 9.9% ROE is too high and would burden customers to inflate corporate profits. 

CUB is urging regulators to reduce both utilities’ ROE to 9.1%, which it estimates would save WEPCO customers between $51 million and $78 million annually and Wisconsin Gas customers $10 million to $16 million annually. The change would save WPS customers between $25 million and $41 million every year.

The past two years, both We Energies and WPS have actually earned an ROE in excess of what the Wisconsin PSC authorized in their last rate case. This can occur when revenues are higher than expected or when costs are lower. The Wisconsin PSC requires both utilities to refund the entirety of excess profits to ratepayers when the actual earned ROE surpasses the authorized ROE by more than 0.75%. Below that amount, utilities keep a portion of the overearnings. If the PSC approves an increase in the utilities’ ROE, the amount the utilities can overearn and retain will increase as well.

A utility’s profits are determined by how much shareholder equity is used to finance projects multiplied by the ROE. Another way to reduce profits charged to customers is to lower how much shareholder equity is used to finance projects and instead use debt which is generally lower-cost. WEPCO and WPS have proposed to cover capital expenditures using a capital structure with over 56% equity, whereas CUB is asking the PSC to rein in costs by reducing that share to 53%. 

CUB estimates that reducing WEPCO’s equity share from the requested 56.75% to 53%, would mean that customers pay $9,321,000 less per year, even if the cost of debt increased as a result. For WPS, CUB estimates customers would pay roughly $12 million to $16 million less per year by reducing the portion of equity from 56.25% to 53%. 

WEC executives receive bonuses if the company earns a higher ROE, based on a weighted performance of its subsidiaries including WPS and We Energies. 

We Energies and WPS request millions in trade association dues, Board of Directors expenses

In addition to increased profit, the utilities are requesting millions of dollars for expenses without clear benefit to customers, including for utility trade association dues and costs associated with  WEC’s Board of Directors. 

We Energies is requesting more than $2.4 million a year from customers to pay for membership dues paid to industry groups that promote utilities’ interests, while WPS is requesting roughly $900,000 annually for similar expenses. 

Both utilities include requests to charge customers for dues to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI): $900,000 annually for We Energies and $400,000 for WPS. EEI is the Washington D.C.-based trade association for the nation’s investor-owned monopoly electric utility companies, and engages in lobbying and political advocacy in support of its members. The group is active at the federal level, but in states as well. EEI’s social media campaign, We Stand For Energy, ran Facebook advertisements targeting Wisconsinites as part of a campaign for legislation that would insulate Wisconsin utilities from competition in building new transmission infrastructure – a proposal that critics say would lead to higher costs for customers.

The utilities also seek to charge customers for dues to the American Gas Association (AGA), to the tune of nearly $500,000 a year for We Energies and roughly $145,000 for WPS. AGA is the D.C.-based trade association that advocates for U.S. monopoly gas distribution utilities. It has led campaigns to block energy efficiency and building code standards that would reduce customer energy bills, fought decarbonization policies, and worked to undermine the science behind the health impacts of home gas use. 

We Energies is also requesting to collect more than $5.3 million from customers’ bills to cover expenses associated with WEC’s Board of Directors, while WPS is requesting nearly $2 million in Board of Directors fees. Both utilities say this line item includes meeting and miscellaneous expenses for the boards, which EPI has found other utilities often use to include expenses such as private air travel, alcohol, luxury meals, and entertainment. No such expenses are enumerated in the Wisconsin rate cases.

In recent years, a growing number of states have prohibited or limited the recovery of trade association dues, board of directors fees, and other costs unrelated to providing reliable service. In Wisconsin, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mandela Barnes included prohibiting utilities from recovering lobbying and political expenses from customer rates in his plan to improve utility affordability. Neither David Crowley, the Democrat who will be on the November gubernatorial ballot, nor Republican Tom Tiffany have pledged support for similar ratepayer protections.

Rates increasing as customer burden climbs 

We Energies and WPS rate increases put financial pressure on Wisconsin families, who are increasingly falling behind on utility bills and risking disconnection of their service. The two utilities combined to shut off electric and gas service to nearly 76,000 households in 2025 compared to 39,500 in 2021, according to data from the utilities’ annual reports filed with the PSC.

From 2021 to 2025 — the years for which data is available — total disconnections across both utilities rose every year. 

This increase in disconnections tracks closely with increasing rates: from 2021 through 2025 WEPCO electric prices increased 28.9%; WEPCO gas prices increased 14.1%; and Wisconsin Gas prices increased 8.7%. WPS bills have increased an estimated 21% since 2022. Both utilities have seen six consecutive years of rate increases. 

*Includes disconnections for dual gas-and-electric customers

(Source)

The burden of climbing rates has had a particularly significant impact on Milwaukee, particularly the predominantly Black near-north and northwest areas of the city. 

Energy burden is defined as the percentage of household income spent on energy needs, and an energy burden of 6% or greater is generally accepted as the threshold for when households are overburdened. In 2025, more than half of the households were overburdened in 35 census tracts served by We Energies – all of them in Milwaukee County, with the vast majority on Milwaukee’s near-north and northwest sides. 

Other states respond to customer affordability, utility greed

Americans nationwide increasingly identify utility greed and affordability as problems. A Pew Research poll of U.S. adults published this year found that 65% of respondents blamed utility greed as a “major reason” for rising utility bills, while a Data for Progress poll found that 20% of swing voters listed restricting utility companies from passing unreasonable costs to customers as a policy that would move their vote. 

Several states are taking substantive action to improve utility affordability. Indiana Governor Mike Braun demoted, and later fired, the chairman of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission after he supported a utility rate increase earlier this year. Braun pledged to center affordability, telling reporters that residents of the state had faced “excessive and unnecessary utility rate increases for too long.” Indiana regulators have since launched an investigation into ROE as part of broader efforts to bring down utility bills.

In Pennsylvania, Governor Josh Shapiro has committed to “vocally and forcefully oppose” rate hike requests unless utilities provide cost-benefit analysis justifying infrastructure upgrades, pursue low-cost debt, and publicize expected utility profits. In a letter, Shapiro told utilities that “this is a moment to put your customers first and change the behaviors causing rate increases.” The Pennsylvania House also unanimously passed legislation to cap ROE and “put an end to excessive windfalls.”

Similarly, legislation introduced in Michigan, as part of a “Ratepayer Bill of Rights” package, would cap utilities’ ROE at 8.2 percent. Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic nominee for governor, includes a pledge to “end unfair profit-driven rate hikes” and “ban rate increases that are only being used to pad profits” as part of her platform.

In June, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont called for caps on utility profits alongside a series of other reforms, saying the status quo is “built to serve utility shareholders” with ratepayers “treated as a captive source of revenue while profits climbed and bills followed.”

Public comment on the We Energies rate case (docket 5-UR-112) is open through Sept. 18. Comment on the Wisconsin Public Service rate case (docket 6690-UR-129) is open through Oct. 5, with a public hearing scheduled for Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay or over Zoom.