Clean Wisconsin is taking legal action to protect more than a million energy customers in the state as AI data centers cause demand to skyrocket. This week Clean Wisconsin intervened in a lawsuit filed by Oracle against the Public Service Commission (PSC) over the agency’s strict new credit and collateral requirements for data center owners and operators in We Energies territory. The tech giant is pushing to relax those new financial requirements as construction continues on its 672-acre data center in Port Washington.
“These financial requirements for the largest energy users our state has ever seen are incredibly important,” says Clean Wisconsin attorney Brett Korte. “This is about protecting We Energies’ other customers—families, small businesses, schools, manufacturers—and shielding them from the risks associated with these enormous energy users.”
In May, the PSC approved a special rate structure, or tariff, for AI data centers in the We Energies service territory, and it could be used as a blueprint for future data center tariffs in other parts of the state. We Energies, Oracle and developer Vantage claim the requirements would “narrow the pool of investors” for AI data center projects in Wisconsin.
Korte points out that Oracle’s credit rating was recently downgraded to BBB-, placing the tech giant just above speculative “junk” status.
“Oracle wants to lower the collateral required because the company may have trouble meeting those requirements. This shows the high risks that providing utility service to Oracle entails, and it’s exactly why the protections adopted by the Commission are necessary,” Korte says.
A recent draft report from the Commission notes that energy demand in Wisconsin is expected to balloon by 40% in the next six years driven largely by just three AI data centers.
We Energies currently has five new methane gas burning power plants either proposed or under construction. The utility has said it expects to double its electricity sales in just the next five years as AI data centers come online.
