As Port Washington gears up to become a national hub for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, many neighbors are asking a fair question: How much will the Lighthouse project impact my energy bill?
The short answer: It won’t.
Thanks to the customer protection plan we’ve proposed to state regulators, energy rates in Port Washington will not go up because of the data center development. Protecting our customers from data center costs is at the foundation of our proposal filed with state regulators. Under our customer protection plan, data centers will pay their own way—covering both the power they use and the cost of new power generation and equipment built to serve them.
Our proposal is fair, transparent and establishes strong safeguards, including binding agreements so data centers owners, not other customers, pay for the infrastructure they require.
We know some people will say, “That sounds good on paper, but will it actually work that way?” That is why these protections have been filed with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, where customer groups are part of the review process and all customers can share feedback.
To serve the Lighthouse campus, we are investing in new renewable energy and modern natural gas facilities to meet the increased energy demand. Most importantly for Port Washington is that adding this capacity will not translate into higher local energy bills.
New renewable facilities will provide clean energy every day, and always available natural gas plants will run when needed during peak demand to keep the lights on.
These plants will strengthen Wisconsin’s power grid and boost energy security for everyone by adding thousands of megawatts of locally produced electricity to the grid for use by Wisconsin residents and businesses.
Most of the changes customers are seeing in their bills right now are due to December and January’s extreme cold weather and higher energy supply costs set by the market. We help customers manage those costs through our natural gas storage facilities, which allow us to manage price spikes and keep bills lower.
We encourage any customer with concerns about their energy bill to contact us. We will work with them on energy assistance, payment options and energy efficiency tools that can help lower bills going forward.
Port Washington residents, along with our other customers, deserve reassurance that this project will not translate into higher energy bills. The facts are: The energy to supply the Lighthouse data center campus is being paid for by the companies that use it, backed by a plan that explicitly aims to keep the rest of the customer base protected.
This Opinion piece from We Energies President Mike Hooper was published in the Ozaukee Press on March 4, 2026