- Wisconsin Energy Corporation
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Wisconsin Energy Corporation 
Type Public (NYSE: WEC) 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, 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
Utility companies
Wisconsin Electric Power Company
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 and 34,500 volts. We Energies distribution voltages are 14,400 volts, 12,470/7200 volts and 4,800 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.
History
- 1896 The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company was formed as a subsidiary of the North American Company to provide interurban rail service in a 12,000-square-mile (31,000 km2) area of southeastern Wisconsin. In time, the company began selling electricity not needed to power the interurban trains to individuals and businesses.
- 1919 Experiments at the company's East Wells Power Plant (then called Oneida Street Plant) in downtown Milwaukee, proved that use of pulverized coal reduced the cost of producing electric power and conserved fuel.
- 1921 Wisconsin Electric Power Company is formed by the North American Company to build and operate the Lakeside Power Plant in St. Francis, Wisconsin. Lakeside was the world's first power plant to burn pulverized coal exclusively.
- 1935 The first of five 80-megawatt units at Port Washington Power Plant was brought on line. From 1935 to 1948, Port Washington was the most efficient coal-fueled power plant in the world.
- 1938 The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company and Wisconsin Electric Power Company consolidated.
- 1941 Wisconsin Electric purchased Wisconsin Gas & Electric Company and Wisconsin Michigan Power Company, which also had been under the North American Company.
- 1946 Wisconsin Electric becomes an independent company, no longer part of the North American Company.
- 1953 Wisconsin Electric placed into service the first 120-megawatt unit at Oak Creek Power Plant. Seven additional units were completed through 1968.
- 1970 Wisconsin Electric's 908-megawatt Point Beach Nuclear Plant began operation and gained a world-wide reputation for efficiency.
- 1980 Wisconsin Electric placed the first 580-megawatt unit at Pleasant Prairie into service. A second unit was added in 1985.
- 1987 Wisconsin Electric restructured, establishing Wisconsin Energy Corporation and the Wispark, Wisvest and Witech subsidiaries.
- 1994 Wisconsin Energy purchased Lake Geneva-based Wisconsin Southern Gas Co. and merged it into Wisconsin Natural, which subsequently merged with Wisconsin Electric in 1995.
- 1998 Wisconsin Energy bought ESELCO, parent company of Edison Sault Electric, based in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
- 2000 WICOR, a Milwaukee-based holding company of Wisconsin Gas, became part of Wisconsin Energy, creating the largest electric and natural gas provider in Wisconsin. The corporation also announced a 10-year plant to invest US$7.0 billion to build five new power plants, to upgrade existing plants and to improve its electric distribution system.
- 2002 Wisconsin Electric and Wisconsin Gas began doing business as We Energies.
- 2004 Wisconsin Energy sold the non-energy assets of WICOR for US$850 million as part of its strategy to divest its non-core businesses.
- 2005 The American Transmission Company was formed by Wisconsin's major utilities.
- 2005 Construction of two 615-megawatt coal-fired units began at the Oak Creek Power Plant site. The same year, the first of two 545-megawatt natural-gas-fueled units began commercial operation at Port Washington Generating Station.
- 2007 Wisconsin Energy sold Point Beach Nuclear Plant to FPL Energy for approximately US$924 million, with We Energies entitled to the output for the life of the plant.
- 2008 The Blue Sky Green Field Wind Farm began operation on a 10,600-acre (43 km2) site with 88 turbines (145-megawatt capacity) in Wisconsin's Fond du Lac County.
- 2009 We Energies received approval to construct and operate the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Wisconsin's Columbia County. The company also announced plans to build a biomass generating facility at the Domtar paper mill in Rothschild, Wisconsin.
- 2010 Wisconsin Energy completed the sale of Edison Sault Electric Company to Cloverland Electric Cooperative. In May, construction began on the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County.
Nonutility companies
We Power, LLC
We Power, LLC designs, builds and owns electric generating facilities.
Wispark, LLC
Wispark, LLC is a full-service real estate development subsidiary, focused on business parks, office/industrial buildings and urban redevelopment.
Primergy merger
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]
References
- ^ a b c Wisconsin Energy Corp. Form 8-K, SEC Info, Filed On 5/3/95, SEC File 1-09057, Accession Number 107815-95-8
- ^ Xcel Energy Inc. Form 8-K, Filed On 5/3/95, SEC File 1-03034, Accession Number 898822-95-46
- ^ a b Wisconsin Energy Corp., Northern States Power Co. Agree to Terminate Merger Proceedings, PRNewswire, May 16
- ^ Primergy too strong for regulators' taste, Google cache, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by LEE BERGQUIST, May 18, 1997
External links
Categories:- Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
- Companies based in Wisconsin
- Companies based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Power companies of the United States
- Companies established in 1896
- Nuclear power companies of the United States
- Hydroelectric power companies of the United States
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