WEC Energy Group Inc. has increased its capital spending plan by $8.5 billion, as the company forecasts rapid data center-driven load growth across its service territory.
"We now expect our annual electric sales growth to be between 6% and 7% for the period 2028 through 2030; that's up from the 4.5% to 5% we previously forecasted," WEC Executive Vice President and CFO Xia Liu said Oct. 30 on the company's third-quarter earnings call.
Additionally, the company's electric demand is expected to grow 3.4 GW between 2026 and 2030, an increase of 1.6 GW compared to the prior plan. OpenAI LLC, Vantage Data Centers and Oracle Corp. on Oct. 22 announced a plan to develop a data center in Port Washington, Wisconsin, outside of Milwaukee. The site, called Lighthouse, is part of OpenAI's and Oracle's multi-site Stargate data center effort and is to be completed in 2029.
In the Oct. 22 announcement, WEC CEO and President Scott Lauber said the arrangement with Vantage would support the development of about 2 GW of renewable resources, with 70% of the output going to the Lighthouse facility and the remaining 30% going to utility customers.
Microsoft Corp. is also on track to bring online the first phase of its data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, sometime next year.
The increase in capital spending brings WEC's total plan to $36.5 billion for 2026–2030, up from the previous $28.0 billion plan for 2025–2029. Spending for 2026 is projected to be $5.68 billion, and more than $7 billion in each of the subsequent four years.
WEC plans to invest $2.5 billion more in renewable generation and storage than the previous plan, Lauber said on the earnings call. Additionally, $4.1 billion is allocated to projects by American Transmission Co. LLC to support new load growth, a $900 million increase over the company's previous plan.
The company also expects to invest an incremental $3.4 billion in natural gas generation compared to the previous plan. The spending includes combustion turbines and upgrades to existing facilities, Lauber said.
The plan increases investment in WEC's gas distribution system by $1.8 billion, to $7.1 billion, and includes a $1.5 billion increase for its pipe retirement program.
"With this updated capital plan, we expect asset-based growth at an average rate of just over 11% a year. We expect that strong asset base growth to support our updated long-term projected earnings per share growth of 7% to 8% a year on a compound annual basis between 2026 and 2030. This is based on the midpoint of our 2025 guidance," Lauber said.
WEC reported third-quarter net income of $271.3 million, or 83 cents per share, compared to $240.1 million, or 76 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. The company stated there were no adjustments to GAAP net income or earnings per share for third-quarter 2025. The S&P Capital IQ consensus GAAP and normalized EPS estimate for WEC in the third quarter was 81 cents per share.
