“Consumer Regulated Electricity (CRE) allows someone to build an entirely new electric service outside the regulated system under certain conditions. These conditions include things like staying physically islanded or separated from the existing grid, serving only new non-residential load that no utility was serving before, and abiding by existing environmental laws.
Because CRE generation is not connected to the grid, and the customers are buyers negotiating their own terms, it would not need commission rate regulation. If this CRE generation ever plugs into the regulated grid, it loses the exemption and comes under normal oversight.
When a large, new load can bring its own supply, it is not asking existing ratepayers to finance a new power plant on its behalf, and it is not waiting years in an interconnection queue to get built.
CRE can be a win for both businesses and ratepayers. For businesses, CRE brings speed and certainty to a long, drawn-out process. For ratepayers, CRE removes the cost of large projects from the rate base including the need for large transmission lines to cut across the state.
A data center, or an industrial park built around its own microgrid, can get power built on its own timeline and its own dime. Whether that microgrid runs on natural gas today or a small modular reactor down the road, guaranteed power on day one is a powerful draw for new businesses, and existing ratepayers are not exposed to the risk.”
https://americansforprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AFP-WI-WILL-FINAL-Energy-Report.pdf
