WEC Energy's quarterly profit increases as it expands its data center services
WEC Energy Group announced on Tuesday a profit that more than doubled during the fourth quarter. The electric utility benefited from lower operating costs and higher revenues as it expanded its service to Microsoft data centers.
U.S. energy companies, like Milwaukee's WEC Energy, are embracing the rise in demand for electricity due to the proliferation of AI data centres and the electrification or buildings and industries.
WEC plans to provide electricity for a campus of 3.3 billion dollars in data centers being built by Microsoft in southeast Wisconsin. This comes as news reports indicate that Microsoft is purchasing more land throughout the state.
According to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the power consumption of data centers in the United States will triple within the next three to four years. This could consume up to 12% of all electricity in the country.
WEC plans to increase power demand by 1,800 megawatts over the next five-year period. WEC executives stated on a conference called that the plan does not include a 1,700-acre Wisconsin campus for data centers, announced by Cloverleaf earlier this year.
WEC executives have said that the site may end up much larger than originally expected.
WEC stated that construction on the site could begin as early as the fall of this year, but energy production at the site would not likely start to increase until 2028 or 2029.
WEC and other utilities are racing to create power agreements that cater specifically to these major new customers.
Scott Lauber, CEO of WEC, said that the company is actively working on tariffs with large customers.
In 2024, residential power consumption increased by 0.5%. Small commercial and industrial electricity consumption rose by 0.7%.
Utility reported total operating costs of $1.69 Billion in the fourth quarter. This is down from $1.88 Billion last year. Sales costs were down by about 3%, to $738.4 Million.
The revenue for the fourth quarter increased by about 3%, to $2.28billion from a year ago.
WEC is a provider of electricity and natural gas in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. Reporting by Laila K. Kearney and Pooja M. Menon in New York; editing by Shailesh Kuber, Mark Porter and Mark Porter
(source: Reuters)
