News

Xcel Energy has reported 2026 first quarter GAAP earnings of $556 million, or $0.89 per share, compared with $483 million, or $0.84 per share in the same period in 2025, and ongoing earnings of $567 million, or $0.91 per share compared with $483 million or $0.84 per share in the same period in 2025.

Despite the impact of unseasonably warm weather in the first quarter, ongoing earnings reflect increased recovery of electric infrastructure investments and electric sales growth, partially offset by higher financing costs and increased depreciation expense.

“At Xcel Energy, we continue to make energy work better for our customers and our past quarter showcased our keen focus on execution and delivering on our plans to strengthen and modernize the grid, expand our energy sources, and deploy innovative technologies to ensure that energy remains safe, reliable, and affordable,” said Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and CEO of Xcel Energy.

“Our data center agreement in the Upper Midwest with Google in the quarter sets a high bar for ongoing community development and investment for data centers – protecting residential bills, advancing sustainability goals, and preserving precious water resources in the local community. Our partnership with Google took a strong step forward in the quarter, and we look forward to advancing more projects in the near future.”

WEC Energy Group has reported net income of $804.4 million, or $2.45 per share, for the first quarter of 2026 — up from $724.2 million, or $2.27 per share, for last year's first quarter.

Consolidated revenues totaled $3.4 billion, up $284.7 million from the first quarter a year ago.

"The continued execution of our capital plan and focus on operating efficiencies led to solid first-quarter results," said Scott Lauber, President and CEO. "As we build for a growing economy, we remain committed to delivering reliable, safe energy to the customers and communities we serve."

Retail deliveries of electricity — excluding the iron ore mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula — were up by 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2026, compared to the first quarter last year.

Electricity consumption by small commercial and industrial customers was 0.7 percent higher. Electricity use by large commercial and industrial customers — excluding the iron ore mine — increased by 2.7 percent.

Residential electricity use rose by 0.2 percent.

On a weather-normal basis, retail deliveries of electricity — excluding the iron ore mine — increased by 1.3 percent.

For the quarter, natural gas deliveries in Wisconsin — excluding natural gas used for power generation — decreased by 3.5 percent compared to the first quarter of 2025. On a weather normal basis, these natural gas deliveries were 2.1 percent lower.

The company is reaffirming its 2026 earnings guidance of $5.51 to $5.61 per share. This assumes normal weather for the remainder of the year.

The Bent Tree North Wind project in Freeborn County, Minnesota, is moving forward, announces Alliant Energy. The energy company recently received unanimous approvals to construct a 150-megawatt (MW) wind project that will be built adjacent to the company’s existing 200-megawatt (MW) Bent Tree wind farm.  

The approvals, from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC), follow a comprehensive review of the project’s benefits. 

“Unanimous approvals in Wisconsin and Minnesota reflect strong regulatory confidence in this project and the value it brings to communities as a whole,” according to Becky Valcq, President of Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Energy Company. “Approval of the Bent Tree North Wind project marks an important step as Alliant Energy continues to build a balanced energy portfolio that includes both renewable and traditional resources to meet customer demand.” 

Xcel Energy will start constructing a new natural gas peaking plant this summer to support grid reliability, delivering service to customers when renewable energy in southwest Minnesota isn’t available and at times of peak demand, after receiving approvals from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

The 420-megawatt Lyon County Generating Station, to be located near Garvin in Lyon County, will play a critical role in supplying reliable power to the grid during periods when wind and solar energy are not available and when the hottest and coldest temperatures of the year drive energy use up. Peaking plants do not continuously generate energy at full capacity; instead, they operate for a small portion of the year based on the needs of the grid. The energy they provide supports Xcel Energy’s larger plan to retire its remaining coal plants by the end of 2030 while keeping the grid reliable.

MGE Energy has reported its most recent earnings per share as $1.32 This exceeded analysts' expectations of $1.13 by 16.81 percent. By comparison, MGE Energy reported EPS of $1.14 in the same quarter last year. A regular quarterly dividend of $0.4750 per share on the outstanding shares of the company's common stock will be payable June 15, 2026, to shareholders of record at the close of business June 1, 2026.

MGE Energy has increased its dividend annually for the past 50 years and has paid cash dividends for more than 110 years.

The Board of Directors of Xcel has declared a quarterly dividend on its common stock of 59.25 cents per share. The dividends are payable July 20, 2026, to shareholders of record on June 15, 2026.

The Board of Directors of WEC Energy Group has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 95.25 cents per share on the company's common stock.

The dividend was payable June 1, 2026, to stockholders of record on May 14, 2026. This marks the 335^th consecutive quarter — dating back to 1942 — that the company will have paid a dividend to its stockholders.

• First quarter GAAP earnings per share were $0.87 in 2026, compared to $0.83 in 2025
• First quarter ongoing earnings per share were $0.82 in 2026, compared to $0.83 in 2025
• Reaffirming 2026 ongoing earnings guidance range of $3.36 - $3.46 per share
• Signed an approximately 370 MW electric service agreement in Iowa, total contracted data center demand is now approximately 3.4 GW

“We are off to a strong start in 2026, delivering approximately 25 percent of our ongoing earnings guidance midpoint, and reaffirming our full-year ongoing EPS outlook,” according to Lisa Barton, Alliant Energy President and CEO. “Our results reflect disciplined execution and continued momentum in data center growth, including the signing of a new electric service agreement in Iowa for approximately 370 megawatts of contracted demand. With five executed agreements, we are translating customer demand into well-structured, long-term growth that benefits investors, existing customers and communities.”

The President and CEO of WEC Energy Group sees the potential for more hyperscale data centers with very large customers.  Scott Lauber made the comments during the company’s earnings call. He said he’s optimistic about new projects in Wisconsin now that the Public Service Commission has approved special rates for very large customers in response to data center development.

“We hopefully will have another announcement to make” this fall, Lauber said. 

Tech companies or developers will be expected to pay all costs tied to power plants and transmission lines being built to serve their data centers. Even without new large customers, the company is planning for a 3.9 gigawatt increase in demand over the next five years due to Microsoft’s $20 billion investment in data centers in Mount Pleasant and the $15 billion data center campus being built by Vantage Data Centers in Port Washington.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission has reviewed We Energies’ Very Large Customer (VLC) and Bespoke Resources Tariff application and issued a decision that modifies provisions relating to the energy-related costs data centers pay.

The Commission does not regulate the permitting, construction, or operations of data center facilities. In March 2025, We Energies submitted an application proposing the new tariffs in response to large data center customers entering the utility’s service territory. The PSC conducted a year-long review of the tariff application, which included analysis by PSC staff and intervening parties and a public engagement process. In its decision, the Commission made modifications to the tariff. Following is a non-exhaustive list of actions taken by the PSC:

• The Commission extended the VLC tariff minimum initial term length to 15 years. • The Commission lowered the energy demand threshold for tariff eligibility from 500 MW to 100 MW. This change expands tariff applicability to smaller data centers. • The Commission required tariff revisions relating to transmission costs. • The Commission removed a capacity-only option that would have allowed data centers to pay 75 percent of the costs of generating facilities. The removal of this capacity-only option and the approval of the Full-Benefits resource model will require data centers to pay 100 percent of their costs. • The Commission established additional reporting requirements to evaluate how the tariffs work in practice and created a mechanism for the Commission to make future adjustments if needed.