September 16, 2021

The State of WPPI Energy in 2021

Mike Peters From the CEO

As the wholesale power supplier for our 51 member utilities, WPPI Energy is accountable to the communities they serve, and I am personally responsible to report on how our joint action agency is faring.

2021 is a busy year for WPPI Energy, as our member utilities continue to look toward the future.

Our newest power supply resource, the Point Beach Solar Energy Center, is now online, and WPPI will purchase the facility’s affordable and carbon-free energy for the next twenty years. This addition further diversifies the resources powering your community and keeps us on track to reduce carbon dioxide emissions approximately 45% by 2025 when compared to 2005.

We’re now concluding the final months of a successful five-year business plan period in which our membership succeeded in all we set out to accomplish, including keeping our wholesale power costs stable and competitive, and modernizing our suite of shared utility business technologies. We’re always looking ahead, however, and that includes the development of our 2022-2026 business plan, which our board will finalize later this fall. The upcoming plan revolves around our core business priorities of delivering reliable, affordable, responsible power; forward-looking services; and effective energy policy advocacy.

The main takeaway for 2021, however, is that joint action works. Partnering together with other like-minded WPPI member communities remains a successful strategy for our membership. Even during these challenging times, customers of WPPI’s 51 member utilities remain highly satisfied, with residential customers in our recent study responding to say they most appreciate that their utility is locally owned, reliable, and trustworthy. That’s something we can all be proud of.

Just like the rest of the world, we’ve also experienced unexpected challenges over the past year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, we’ve always understood that preparedness and resilience are vital for our industry. Thanks to smart planning and technology investments on the part of WPPI’s membership, we are well-prepared to adapt and maintain the same high performance that the utilities we serve can always expect, regardless of how circumstances may change.

Since our joint action agency’s creation more than 40 years ago, WPPI made a commitment to serve and support our member communities. Now and for the long term, this is a pledge we will continue to honor.