#Thomas olson atc code upgrade#
#Thomas olson atc code series#

Utilities are appealing the reduced profit in a court challenge filed in Washington. Customer groups have asked to bring those profits below 10%, and in its first decision on the issue, FERC commissioners voted to set the profit at 10.32%. Stuart's group and the Citizens Utility Board have been working with other customer groups in the Midwest to try to rein in utility profits.Ĭomplaints filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission aim to bring down the return on equity, or profit level, earned by ATC and other transmission-focused utilities.ĪTC ia currently allowed a return of 12.2%, and other Midwest utilities such as Xcel Energy are allowed a return of 12.38% on their investments. High electric rates are a heavy tax on Wisconsin’s manufacturers.' The problem is now Wisconsin has the highest average rates in the Midwest. 'I don’t think anyone 10 or 15 years ago would have guessed in 2016 we’d still have up to $4.4 billion in transmission that is still on the drawing board. 'There is obviously a significant incentive for our state’s utilities to keep developing new projects,' said Stuart.

In the monopoly utility system, utilities derive their net income from their investments that are billed to customers. Key concerns now are dealing with the aging equipment on the transmission network, Snead and Olson said.īut customers remain concerned about the profit incentive tied to regulated utilities.

But even with those increases, transmission accounts for about 10 cents for every $1 paid by local utility customers, said Jackie Olson, ATC spokeswoman.

#Thomas olson atc code series#

When ATC was first formed in 2000, Wisconsin was lacking in interstate power-line linkages to form a better-connected power grid designed to ease access to lower-cost power sources.īut that has improved, thanks to two projects that have connected Wisconsin and Minnesota, two others that improved connections to Illinois, and a series of projects designed to boost the reliability of energy supply in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.Īs ATC has invested $3.5 billion since 2000, the share of the electric bill tied to transmission has risen. Stuart highlighted the profit motive for utilities to keep proposing to build new projects - as utilities in Milwaukee, Green Bay, Madison and Superior all see profits flow in each year from American Transmission as a result of more and more projects being built.ĪTC says the needs it has identified in the years already have shifted, because the utility has built high-profile major power lines that are designed to improve the flow of power around the upper Midwest. 'At one point, one would reasonably expect that capital expenditures for ATC’s construction projects would start to wind down,” said Todd Stuart, executive director of the group, a coalition of manufacturers. The Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, a consortium of manufacturers already irked about high electricity rates in Wisconsin, said it had been hoping to see ATC's 10-year plan recede below the $4 billion mark after all the construction the transmission-only utility has undertaken in the past 15 years. when they communicate about their profit outlooks for the years to come.īut critics of ATC say both of the projects on the utility's drawing board as well as its profits deserve scrutiny. The assessment is touted regularly by the utilities that co-own American Transmission Co. The 10-year assessment is in the same ballpark as last year's plan, which called for $3.7 billion to $4.5 billion in spending.ĪTC is a utility that's co-owned by the traditional Wisconsin utilities including We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service, Alliant Energy, Madison Gas & Electric and Superior Water, Light and Power. “We also anticipate continued challenges in the next 10 years as generation sources change due to the Clean Power Plan.”

#Thomas olson atc code upgrade#

“We see a continuing, albeit slower, need to expand the regional electric grid, as well as to efficiently maintain and upgrade older assets,” said Ron Snead, ATC vice president of system planning. Last year's spending plan was $4.1 billion at the midpoint. The projected spending for the next decade is $3.6 billion to $4.4 billion, or $4 billion at the midpoint. The 10-year assessment prepared by the utility's planners says that needs for new major projects are on the decline, but that maintenance and other needs continue to grow now that the utility has invested $3.8 billion over the past 15 years. American Transmission Co.'s updated assessment calls for about $4 billion in spending over the next decade, the Pewaukee utility announced.