Wisconsinites' energy bills are rising.
Who feels it most?
The statewide average price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity — the standard unit of measurement, about enough to power a refrigerator for six hours — rose by roughly 40% over the past decade, roughly keeping pace with inflation.
Wisconsin’s largest investor-owned utilities share data on average household energy expenses in annual reports to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator. Utilities, regulators and ratepayer advocates use that data to track energy costs as a share of median household income — a metric known as "energy burden."
The U.S. Department of Energy considers a household spending 6% or more of its annual income on energy to be "energy burdened." Per the same standard, households spending 10% or more of their annual income on energy costs are "severely" energy burdened. The PSC has yet to set its own energy burden standards.
Utilities disclose energy burden estimates at the census tract level, but they do not report the number of energy-burdened households in a given tract.
High-energy-burden tracts often overlap with Wisconsin’s lowest-income communities.
The most-burdened tract? The northern portion of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. An average household in that tract spent roughly 20% of its annual income on energy in 2025. The tract's unusually low median household income — about $10,000 in 2024 — accounts for much of its outlier status.
Many of Wisconsin's highest energy burden tracts are on Milwaukee's North Side.
Average households in four tracts roughly within the King Park, Midtown and North Division neighborhoods spent more than 6% of their annual income on electricity alone last year and more than 10% on electricity and natural gas combined.
We Energies maintains that high energy burdens in low-income communities do not prove that energy prices are broadly unaffordable for Wisconsinites.
It is “important to distinguish between household financial hardship and evidence that energy itself is becoming less affordable,” Steven Wishart, an energy consultant testifying on behalf of We Energies in an ongoing rate case, told the PSC in August.
Median household incomes in three of Milwaukee’s most energy-burdened census tracts declined or remained essentially flat over the past decade, falling behind the pace of inflation and electricity rate increases.
In Wishart’s view, targeted ratepayer assistance programs offer a better strategy for addressing affordability than “broad reductions in otherwise cost-based utility rates.” We Energies reported about 59,800 customers enrolled in its affordability and arrears forgiveness program in 2025 — roughly equal to the number of customers it disconnected for nonpayment that year.
Wishart suggested struggling ratepayers could also try a more straightforward approach to lowering their electricity bills: reducing household energy consumption.
Ratepayer advocates disputed elements of Wishart’s framing. “The nature of residential public utility services as essential, life-sustaining services makes them different from other goods and services,” Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board regulatory affairs director Corey Singletary wrote in a September rebuttal.
Even after adjusting for inflation, We Energies’ current residential rates are higher than at any point in at least a decade. The utility’s rate increases have generally outpaced the Consumer Price Index since 2023.
Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCO)
WEPCO, otherwise known as We Energies, serves over 1.1 million electric customers in eastern Wisconsin.
Other Wisconsin utilities’ rates are either roughly even with or below their inflation-adjusted peaks. The PSC’s electricity price data does not reflect credits ratepayers received as a result of the 2017 Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which temporarily reduced net energy bills.
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPSC)
WPSC serves roughly 475,000 electricity customers in eastern and northern Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Power and Light (WPL)
WPL, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy, serves approximately 450,000 electricity customers in southern and central Wisconsin.
Northern States Power Company-Wisconsin (NSPC)
NSPC, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, serves approximately 265,000 electricity customers in western Wisconsin.
Madison Gas and Electric (MGE)
MGE serves roughly 170,000 electricity customers in the Madison area.
Superior Water, Light and Power (SWL&P)
SWL&P serves roughly 15,000 electricity customers in and around Superior in northwestern Wisconsin.
The PSC will vote this year on rate increase requests from We Energies and the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, both owned by Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group as of 2015.
We Energies asked the regulator in April to raise residential electricity rates by about 16% over the next two years; Wisconsin Public Service Corporation proposed a roughly 14% residential rate increase over the same period.