| Type | Public (NYSE: WEC) S&P 500 Component |
|---|---|
| Industry | Diversified Utilities |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Key people | Gale E. Klappa, Chairman, CEO, and President |
| Revenue | $4.43 billion USD (2008) |
| Employees | 4,545 (2009) |
| Website | http://www.wisconsinenergy.com |
Wisconsin Energy Corporation (NYSE: WEC), based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serves more than 1.1 million electric customers in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula and more than 1 million natural gas customers in Wisconsin through its utility subsidiary, We Energies. Other subsidiaries are We Power, which designs, builds and owns electric generating plants; and Wispark, LLC, which develops and invests in real estate, industrial/office buildings and urban redevelopment projects.
The corporation and utility headquarters are located at 231 W. Michigan Street in Milwaukee.
Contents |
Wisconsin Electric Power Company, which does business as We Energies, provides electrical service for over one million customers, primarily located in southeastern and eastern Wisconsin as well as the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We Energies also supplies nearly one million natural gas customers located throughout the state of Wisconsin.
The majority of We Energies' electricity is generated by its coal-fueled power plants power plants in Oak Creek, Pleasant Prairie and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Marquette, Michigan; from the natural-gas-fueled Port Washington Generating Station in Port Washington, Wisconsin, and from the Point Beach Nuclear Generating Station north of Manitowoc, Wisconsin (now owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources). We Energies also operates natural-gas-fueled peaking plants, which are used to produce electricity during periods of peak demand, several hydroelectric dams located on rivers in northeast Wisconsin, and from various renewable energy sources, including wind and biomass.
WE Energies transmission service is provided by the American Transmission Company. Transmission line voltages are 345,000 volts, 230,000 and 138,000 volts. Its subtransmission voltages are 69,000 volts, 34,500 volts, 26,400 volts and 24,940 volts. WE Energies distribution voltages are 14,400 volts, 13,800/7,970 volts, 13,200/7,620 volts, 12,470/7,200 volts, 4,160/2,400 volts and 3,810/2,200 volts. We Energies transmission system interconnections are with Commonwealth Edison in northern Illinois, Wisconsin Public Service in northeast and north central Wisconsin and Xcel Energy in western Wisconsin and most of Minnesota and Upper Peninsula Power Company in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
We Power, LLC designs, builds and owns electric generating facilities.
Wispark, LLC is a full-service real estate development subsidiary, focused on business parks, office/industrial buildings and urban redevelopment.
On May 3, 1995, Wisconsin Energy Corporation and Northern States Power Company (NYSE: NSP) each filed a Securities and Exchange Commission Form 8-K to combine in a merger-of-equals transaction to form Primergy Corporation, which would have been a registered public utility holding company and new parent of both NSP and of the WEC operating subsidiaries. It would have been the 10th largest investor-owned electric and gas utility company in the United States, based on market capitalization at that time of about US$6.0 billion.[1][2]
Wisconsin Energy's utility subsidiaries, Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCO) and Wisconsin Natural Gas Company (WNG), were to be consolidated under a new subsidiary name, Wisconsin Energy Company. Under that name, it and NSP would have continued to operate as the two principal subsidiaries of Primergy Corp. Also, NSP-Wisconsin would merge into the operating subsidiary Wisconsin Energy Company. NSP's two subsidiaries were NSP-Minnesota, operating in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, and NSP-Wisconsin, operating in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.[1] The merger deal was expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 1996.[1]
By 1997, approvals had been granted by the state regulatory commissions in Michigan and North Dakota, but not by the commissions in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Approvals from the Securities & Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice were still pending.[3]
On May 16, 1997, both CEOs announced that the boards of directors of both companies had terminated the merger plan. They also stated that the regulatory agencies were changing their merger policies as they were considering the companies' filing and that further delay would reduce the benefits of the Primergy transaction.[3]
The delay already had put the merger five months behind schedule and had reduced earnings for both utilities by a total of US$58 million to that point. In addition, Wisconsin Energy's stock had fallen about 13% since early 1995 when the deal had been announced, while NSP's stock had risen by 6%. The case was considered to be a bellwether in the utilities industry, putting an end to the rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions that had been ongoing up to then.[4]
In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Wisconsin Energy for spending $2.45 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $85 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $1.7 billion, and increasing executive pay by 6% to $24.2 million in 2010 for its top 5 executives.[5]