Wisconsin Firing Up New Generating Sources to Meet Power Demand

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) plans to build a 500 MW coal-fired electrical power generator at their 345 acre Weston Power Plant site. WPS customers are increasing electricity demand by approximately two to three per cent per year. The population is increasing and individual customers are increasing demands. The average use of electricity by residential customers has risen by about 20% in the last ten years.

The new unit would be capable of generating enough energy to power about 200,000 homes. The project schedule sees the plant beginning operations in 2008 at a cost of between $650 to $700 million. The facility will be funded by a combination of internally generated funds, debt issues, and equity. WPS Resources will potentially need to issue additional common stock in the next two years to raise the necessary capital to fund the equity.

WPS Resources is increasing its generating capacity through regulated and non-regulated subsidiaries. With the aim of improving system reliability it increased its ownership in Kewaunee nuclear power plant in 2001, purchased De Pere energy center in 2002 and completed installation of an 83 MW generator at the Pulliam power plant in 2003. In addition to the planned 500 MW plant it will purchase 150 MW of energy from Calpine in 2005.

The non-regulated subsidiary, WPS Power Development commissioned a 50 MW cogeneration plant in 2002 and will complete construction of a 200 MW coal-fired plant by 2007. This plant will be integrated with the 53 MW Stoneman power plant in Cassville, Wisconsin.

A 352 kilometer transmission line that will run from Wasau, Wisconsin to Duluth, Minnesota will still be needed even with the Weston plant in prospect. New generation, an upgraded transmission system and conservation are all required to meet Wisconsin's future electrical power needs.

WPS is working with regulatory agencies and departments during the Weston plant's 12-18 month approval process. WPS is a subsidiary of WPS Resources and serves around 400,000 electric power customers and 300,000 natural gas customers. WPS will increase systems reliability in northeast and north central Wisconsin and an adjacent portion of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Running parallel to WPS is WPS Power Development, a non-regulated subsidiary of WPS Resources, that has a generating capacity of 932 MW and has experience in cogeneration, distributed generation, generation from renewables and generation plant re-powering projects.