(MADISON) Beaver Dam residents are bringing concerns about potential energy rate increases to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, which held a public hearing on Tuesday about Alliant Energy’s utility rate contract with Meta, which is building a large AI data center on newly annexed land on Beaver Dam’s north side.
Emily Luy Tan of Beaver Dam said the process of bringing a Meta AI data center to the community has not been transparent.
“This lack of transparency has continued into the PSC contract case docket that redacts almost all the information necessary for the public to appreciate how much will big tech pay and how much will we pay?”
Local Laborers 330 President Gerald Schomaker said his members are already working on the Meta Data Center site and related energy projects.
“A lot of that is clean energy, such as solar and battery storage. My members are also working on those projects. And I would like to urge the approval of Alliant Energy’s individual contract rate application.”
Wayne Oien of Beaver Dam said there are no guarantees for ratepayers,
“There’s also no promise or enforcement to insulate the public, me and my fellow residents in the area or the county or surrounding counties from paying any of the costs of a transmission line that’s being built specifically to a private entity. We should not bear one red cent of that.”
Residents want a statewide standard for utility rate contracts related to data centers, and assurances that the projects won’t leave ratepayers on the hook if the data center bubble bursts.
The PSC is accepting written comments from the public through Tuesday, March 3.
(Wisconsin Radio Network contributed to this report.)
