We Energies price hike: Public Service Commission sets 2023 rates on Thursday

MILWAUKEE — Get ready for a rate hike on your We Energies bill starting Jan. 1, 2023.

Tom Content with the Citizens Utility Board helped us understand what a three-person Public Service Commission of Wisconsin decided for hundreds of thousands of WE Energies customers.

• Roughly 11 percent, or $132 a year for the typical homeowner.
• Small businesses are about 8 percent
• Big businesses see the lowest increase of about 6 percent

PSC Wisconsin Commission Meeting

Going into this meeting, we braced for a possible 13-percent rate hike for homeowners, because the commissioners saw WE Energies need to invest billions of dollars into our grid.

The final number at the end of the meeting was about 11 percent.

Content says that's still too high, "Because there was a chance to get a single-digit increase."

He believes the commission missed a huge opportunity to listen to the more than 1,200 public comments submitted on this rate hike proposal and said, "We can't handle this size of an increase right now and there was a chance today for customers to avoid that."

Customers we spoke to today were also not happy, including one man who lives in the Lindsay Heights Neighborhood. He says, "A lot of people can't afford to have a price hike on their electric gas bill. They can't afford to pay it now, how you get a hike and try to make money? What you gonna do is have a lot of shut-offs."

Area leaders with the non-profit Walnut Way Conservation Corp. asked the commission to address this potential rate hike by helping low-income customers. That was not approved by the commissioners.

Another contentious point was that the proposed rate hike will not be the same across the board. Big businesses will see a roughly six-percent rate hike on their WE Energies bills.

This decision also includes WE Energies agreeing to write off about $30 million dollars in unpaid bills during the pandemic.

A WE Energies Spokesperson sent TMJ4 News this statement following the commission meeting: "A significant number of items were decided today by members of the Public Service Commission. Given all these decision points, we will simply need to wait to see the order to determine the full impact. Given past practice, we expect the commission to issue their written order in a few weeks. For We Energies residential customers, the typical electric bill impact in 2023 is expected to be about $11 per month."

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The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin is meeting Thursday to officially set the new prices for We Energies bills in our state.

We Energies bills are expected to jump 13 percent. That adds up to a $14.61 increase per month and is more than double We Energies' initial request of $6 a month. The price spike would raise the average residential electric bill by $175 a year, according to a filing submitted to the commission, commonly referred to as the PSC.

At a previous public hearing about potential cost increases, We Energies cited the growing costs of natural gas and coal plus what the PSC approved in the past. Utility officials also said that investments in new clean energy projects are a driver of price hikes, and that those moves will save customers significant money in the long run, they said.

We Energies has pointed to its assistance programs and willingness to work with customers who are struggling.

You can watch the PCS's meeting on Thursday on YouTube here.

Below is the meeting agenda for Thursday:

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