WPPI Energy is a regional power company serving 51 customer-owned electric utilities. Through WPPI Energy, these public power utilities share resources and own generation facilities to provide reliable, affordable electricity to more than 192,000 homes and businesses in Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Iowa.
Mission
WPPI Energy was created to provide members with a highly reliable, cost-competitive power supply for the long term and excellent services.
To accomplish WPPI Energy’s mission, we must be savvy analysts, tough negotiators and respected industry leaders. We must also provide members with industry-recognized technical expertise, management and visionary leadership.
In recognition of the significant economic and environmental challenges ahead, WPPI Energy and our members are working hard to shape the changes that confront our industry.
Climate Change
The seriousness of climate change is beyond question, and there is tremendous momentum for decreasing reliance on fossil fuels. Given the body of scientific knowledge on global warming, it would be imprudent not to take such action to protect our environment for future generations; however, the devil will be in the details of how these changes are made.
It is very difficult to plan new resources without knowing what new regulation and costs will be imposed. WPPI Energy and our members are engaging in advocacy efforts, doing everything we can to make cost mitigation for utility customers a primary goal of any such program.
WPPI Energy President and CEO Roy Thilly served as co-chair of Wisconsin Governor
Jim Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming. The Task Force’s 2008 Final Report offers more than 60 policy recommendations consistent with WPPI Energy’s plans and include an innovative approach to cap and trade that would provide cost certainty for utility customers while also protecting the environment.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation
To protect our environment and keep our economy competitive, energy efficiency must become a primary energy policy focus. We waste a tremendous amount of energy in our homes and businesses. We believe the utility of the future will be dedicated to helping customers manage their consumption. Reducing use through efficiency will reduce bills and eliminate the need for new, major power plants that would otherwise have to be built.
WPPI Energy and our members are leading by example in this area. WPPI Energy has increased energy efficiency and conservation program funding by more than 300% over three years, from $2.38 million in 2006 to $9 million in 2009.
Renewable Energy
To meet the challenges of a carbon-constrained future, WPPI Energy and our members support increased reliance on renewable energy resources to help transform our electric system in as cost effective, efficient a manner as possible. WPPI Energy is ahead of the curve in this area. By 2009, WPPI Energy expects to have sufficient resources in place for meeting the Wisconsin and Michigan requirements that at least 10 percent of electricity purchased by retail customers be supplied from renewable sources starting in 2015.
Transmission
The network of high voltage transmission lines is essential to the health, safety and economic prosperity of our region. Our electric transmission system brings power from our generating plants to our load centers, connecting our utilities so they can back each other up, enabling us to reach a variety of new renewable resources for the future, and tying us to regional power markets. A robust transmission system is essential to reliability and maintaining low and stable prices.
WPPI Energy is a member of the Transmission Access Policy Study Group, an effective voice in the fight for open and equal transmission access and for strong protections against the exercise of market power in electric markets.
Utility Deregulation
WPPI Energy believes that Wisconsin's careful, sequential approach to change in the industry has protected the state from the extreme price spikes and shortages experienced by California and other states that rushed into restructuring of the electric utility industry.
Although the push for radical deregulation has subsided, the industry is still undergoing rapid changes. Energy policy must be adjusted appropriately to keep up with these changes; however, the electric industry is complex and the impact of changes can be very costly and difficult to predict. Unintended consequences can occur from ill-considered deregulation schemes. We should go slowly and adopt only those changes that have a reasonable certainty of creating benefits.
WPPI Energy is a member of the Customers First! Coalition, a broad-based alliance dedicated to preserving Wisconsin's reliable and affordable electricity.
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