Wisconsin Data Center News

May 14, 2026

Policymakers Consider Temporary Pause on AI Data Center Construction: What Stakeholders Need to Know

On March 25, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act.

Main announcement: The Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on March 25, 2026, would impose a nationwide halt on constructing or upgrading new or existing data centers with a power demand of 20 megawatts (MW) or more until “strong national safeguards” are in place; the Act also seeks to bar government subsidies, require union labor/prevailing wages, and give affected communities ability to approve or reject projects.
Background and related measures: Multiple state and local actions are cited including New York Senate Bill 9144 (prohibits permits for data centers capable of using 20 MW or more until new regulations), indefinite local moratoriums (e.g., Oldham County, KY), over 100 localities with moratoria, a reported $156 billion across 48 projects blocked or delayed in 2025, and the Port Washington, WI referendum requiring voter approval for tax-increment financing for projects with base value or project costs over $10 million; Virginia legislative action (Senate Bill 30) would end a sales/use tax exemption for certain data center equipment on January 1, 2027.

May 7, 2026

Microsoft may shelve 2030 clean energy target as AI lifts power use, Bloomberg News reports

Microsoft is considering delaying or abandoning its 2030 goal to match its entire hourly electricity use with renewable energy purchases, according to Bloomberg News.

Main announcement: Microsoft is considering delaying or abandoning its 2030 hourly renewable matching goal; discussions are ongoing and no final decision has been made, per Bloomberg. Microsoft says it is still seeking opportunities to maintain the goal and pointed to a 1.2 gigawatts agreement with We Energies for solar and battery projects expected to start coming online in December 2028.
Background and details: The reconsideration is driven by an expensive, energy-intensive push for AI data centers (some expected to have multiple gigawatts of capacity); rivals Amazon and Alphabet are undertaking similar buildouts. The article notes increased deals for nuclear and demand for natural gas, and that Microsoft in 2024 agreed a power deal with Constellation Energy related to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant unit in Pennsylvania.

May 7, 2026

50 States of Power Decarbonization Q1 2026: Lawmakers Tackle Cost Allocation and Ratepayer Protections for Large Load Additions

The NC Clean Energy Technology Center released the Q1 2026 edition of the 50 States of Power Decarbonization report.

Report release & key findings: The Q1 2026 report documents 509 actions taken by 49 states plus Puerto Rico during the quarter and notes more than 600 introduced bills not yet passed. It reports planned capacity additions of 58,276 MW solar, 54,952 MW natural gas, 30,297 MW storage, and 22,358 MW wind, and 30,967 MW of planned coal retirements.
Top developments & context: The report highlights top policy developments including the Arizona Corporation Commission repealing the state renewable energy standard, Florida requiring large load tariffs, a North Carolina task force report on large load growth, Virginia rejoining RGGI, and El Paso Electric proposing large load tariffs in New Mexico; the most active states in Q1 2026 were Virginia, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Arizona.

May 6, 2026

AEP Q1 2026 GAAP earnings rise 9% to $874m

American Electric Power (AEP) reported Q1 2026 GAAP earnings of $874m and raised its five-year capital plan to $78bn.

Q1 financial results and guidance: AEP reported GAAP earnings of $874m (up 9.3% vs Q1 2025) and non-GAAP operating earnings of $891m (up 8.3%); quarterly revenue was $6.02bn (up 10.2%). AEP maintained full-year 2026 operating earnings guidance of EPS $6.15–$6.45.
Capital plan, load growth and project details: AEP increased its five-year capital plan to $78bn (from $72bn), with $33bn targeted for transmission projects (42% of plan). AEP reported new load agreements totalling 7GW in Q1, expects incremental load of 63GW by 2030, and says AEP Texas accounts for 41GW of commitments. New projects include 765kV transmission lines across the Southwest Power Pool and PJM regions; implementation of Texas Senate Bill 6 is expected to streamline interconnection processes. AEP also cites use of federal grants and loan guarantees to deliver nearly $600m in customer savings.

May 5, 2026

New Data Center Developments: May 2026

Data Center Knowledge published a monthly roundup highlighting global data center project announcements, regulatory moves, and investment commitments driven by hyperscale AI demand.

Main announcement: The roundup catalogs multiple concrete project actions including Aligned Data Centers’ Project Caprock (540 MW, 313-acre campus in Hale County, Texas; initial delivery Q1 2027), EdgeCore’s completion of $1.5 billion in financing for two Northern Virginia hyperscale centers, and Yondr Group energizing a 27 MW Toronto facility expected in mid-2026. It also notes major investment commitments such as Digital Realty’s near S$7 billion Singapore plan (S$4.3 billion for new data centers) and AWS increasing planned investment in Mississippi to $25 billion.
Context and details: The piece outlines parallel regulatory updates in U.S. states (Maine vetoed a moratorium; Wisconsin revised We Energies tariff rules; North Carolina advanced legislation to require hyperscalers to cover infrastructure costs), workforce and partnership initiatives (Equinix Foundation with ODATA, Cisco, Vertiv launching training in Brazil, cohorts mid-2026), and other regional projects and financings (TikTok €1 billion Finland site; Ark Data Centres >€600 million Barcelona project; Equinix land purchases in South Africa totaling ZAR 890 million).

May 5, 2026

Meet the academics refusing to use generative AI

Several researchers have announced they are abstaining from using generative AI tools.

Main action: Several individual researchers (including Danielle Crowley at Bangor University, Hugh Possingham at the University of Queensland, Audrey Moores at McGill University, Tanisha Jowsey at Bond University, Juan Rocha at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Michaela Socolof at MIT and Elizabeth Wolkovich at the University of British Columbia) say they are purposefully abstaining from using generative AI because of concerns about copyright/consent, transparency of training data, accuracy/hallucinations, and environmental impacts; some have adopted explicit policies (for example, Wolkovich will not chair defences or join committees where students use genAI for writing).
Background and evidence: Surveys and studies cited include a Nature survey of ~5,000 researchers showing high acceptance for AI editing but far lower use for text generation, an Elsevier survey of 3,234 researchers reporting 58% use of AI, and a Patterns study estimating 2025 global AI system footprints of 32.6–79.7 million tonnes CO2 and 312.5–764.6 billion litres of water; other factual details include specific examples of AI errors (hallucinated citations and incorrect molecular depictions) and published commentaries calling for restrictions on genAI in chemistry and qualitative research.

May 4, 2026

North Carolina Targets Hyperscale Costs with Proposed AI Infrastructure Bill

Rep. Lindsey Prather has sponsored the Ratepayer and Resource Protection Act to require large data centers to bear the full cost of power, water, and related infrastructure and to limit their access to public incentives.

Main action: The bill mandates full cost recovery by utilities for large data centers (charging rates that cover the marginal cost of service including new generation, transmission, and substations), includes a “hold harmless” provision preventing rate impacts on other customers, makes data centers ineligible for state and local incentives (tax abatements and infrastructure subsidies), and sets a hyperscale threshold of 40 MW peak demand or >1 billion liters annual water use; it also requires on-site clean generation equal to at least 25% of projected peak demand (operational at launch) and excludes RECs and virtual PPAs for compliance.
Background and details: The bill is a proposed legislative action (not yet law) that shifts North Carolina from incentive-driven recruitment to a full cost model, adds mandatory closed-loop or reclaimed water use and annual public reporting of estimated/actual water use and cooling efficiency, allows the North Carolina Utilities Commission authority to increase the on-site generation percentage for reliability, and follows similar regulatory moves in Wisconsin and local actions (e.g., Durham moratorium proposals).

Apr 30, 2026

Alliant Energy announces first quarter 2026 results

Alliant Energy Corporation has announced its first quarter 2026 financial results and a new electric service agreement.

Main announcement: Alliant Energy reported GAAP EPS $0.87 for Q1 2026 (vs. $0.83 in Q1 2025), ongoing EPS $0.82 (vs. $0.83), reaffirmed 2026 ongoing earnings guidance $3.36 - $3.46 per share, and signed an approximately 370 MW electric service agreement in Iowa, raising total contracted data center demand to ~3.4 GW with five executed agreements.
Background and details: Alliant Energy serves more than 1 million electric and 435,000 natural gas customers across Iowa and Wisconsin; its wholly owned subsidiaries are Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL) and Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL). Media contact details provided: Iowa phone (319) 786-4040, Wisconsin phone (608) 458-4040, and alliantenergynews@alliantenergy.com.

Apr 28, 2026

California Utilities Have a Solution to Soaring Energy Prices: More Data Centers

PG&E is advancing a policy and commercial push to attract large data center loads as a means to lower electric rates for California ratepayers.

Main announcement/action: PG&E has celebrated the delivery of its first large data-center customer in San Jose and is actively courting hyperscalers; the utility announced a rate decrease in March 2026 and asserts that each 1 GW of data center load could reduce electric rates by 1–2%, while forecasting up to 12.6 GW of potential data-center load from current applications (enough to power 8.4 million homes). CPUC also approved Electric Rule No. 30 (July 2025) requiring applicants to pay transmission upgrade costs upfront to protect ratepayers.
Background and other details: Regulatory and research sources (Brattle Group and LBNL) show California’s retail electricity prices rose markedly 2019–2024 (California at 30.29 cents/kWh); Cal Advocates warns transmission upgrades could run in the billions and recommends cost-responsibility rules. State-level bills (Sen. Scott Padilla, March) would streamline environmental review (ELDP incentives) and impose tariffs to ensure data centers offset costs; a March presidential Rate Payer Protection Pledge was signed by major tech firms (Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, xAI).

Apr 28, 2026

Wisconsin’s Data Center Tariff Signals a New Regulatory Baseline

The Public Service Commission (PSC) of Wisconsin approved modifications to We Energies’ proposed data center tariff requiring very large customers to fund full generation and grid costs.

Main action: The PSC approved tariff modifications after a year-long review that (a) requires large-load customers (data centers and similar) to fund 100% of the generation and grid resources built to serve them, (b) extends minimum contract terms to 15 years, and (c) lowers the eligibility threshold from 500 MW to 100 MW; the commission also rejected a proposed “capacity only” 75% payment option and directed We Energies to revise transmission cost allocation provisions.
Background and implementation details: The order followed a year-long review; PSC leaders Summer Strand and Commissioner Kristy Nieto emphasized transparency and that customers must pay their own way, fully and transparently; the commission referenced regional allocation limits (MISO/FERC) as a remaining exposure and asked We Energies to redraft tariff language addressing transmission cost allocation and long-term commitments.

Wisconsin Data Center Intel

Recent Wisconsin data center news