News

WEC Energy Group reports second-quarter results

WEC Energy Group has reported net income of $245.4 million, or 76 cents per share, for the second quarter of 2025 — up from $211.3 million, or 67 cents per share, in last year's second quarter.

For the first six months of 2025, the company recorded net income of $969.6 million, or $3.02 per share — up from $833.6 million, or $2.64 per share, in the corresponding period a year ago. Consolidated revenues totaled $5.2 billion, up $706.8 million from the first half of 2024.

"A warm start to the summer, steady execution of our capital plan and a continued focus on operating efficiency were major factors that shaped a strong quarter," according to Scott Lauber, President and CEO.

Retail deliveries of electricity – excluding the iron ore mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula — were up by 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2025, compared to the second quarter last year.

Electricity consumption by small commercial and industrial customers was 0.6 percent higher. Electricity use by large commercial and industrial customers — excluding the iron ore mine — increased by 0.8 percent. Residential electricity use rose by 1.6 percent.

On a weather-normal basis, retail deliveries of electricity during the second quarter of this year — excluding the iron ore mine — increased by 1.1 percent.

The company is reaffirming its 2025 earnings guidance of $5.17 to $5.27 per share. This assumes normal weather for the remainder of the year.

WEC Energy Group declares quarterly dividend

The Board of Directors of WEC Energy Group has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 89.25 cents per share on the company's common stock.

The dividend was payable September 1, 2025, to stockholders of record on August 14, 2025. This marks the 332^nd consecutive quarter — dating back to 1942 — that the company will have paid a dividend to its stockholders.

MGE Energy Reports Second-Quarter 2025 Earnings

MGE Energy's GAAP earnings for the second quarter of 2025 were $26.5 million, or $0.73 per share, compared to $23.8 million, or $0.66 per share, for the same period in the prior year. Rate base investment growth and weather impacts drove our second-quarter results.

In the second quarter of 2025, electric net income increased $3.9 million compared to the second quarter of 2024. MGE continues to invest in new, cost-effective renewable generation, supporting the company’s ongoing asset growth. An increase in electric investments included in rate base contributed to higher electric earnings for 2025. In March 2025, the Darien Solar Project in Rock and Walworth counties became operational, followed by the Paris Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), which went into service in June 2025. These additions further enhance electric system reliability and contributed to the increase in electric earnings. MGE owns 25 MW of solar capacity from the Darien Solar Project and 11 MW of battery capacity associated with the Paris BESS project.

For the second quarter of 2025, electric residential sales increased approximately 5 percent, largely driven by warmer-than-normal weather. Gas net income exhibited steady performance, with minimal variation compared to the second quarter of 2024.

MGE Energy Increases Dividend for 50th Consecutive Year

The Board of Directors of MGE Energy has increased the regular quarterly dividend rate 5.6 percent to $0.4750 per share on the outstanding shares of the company’s common stock. The dividend is payable September 15, 2025, to shareholders of record September 1, 2025. This raises the annualized dividend rate by 10 cents from $1.80 per share to $1.90 per share.

"Today’s action by our board marks a milestone that only a select number of companies have achieved of increasing the dividend for 50 consecutive years, reinforcing our commitment to consistent and sustainable dividend growth and signaling the continued strength of MGE Energy’s long-term business strategy for building your community energy company for the future," according to Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Keebler. "MGE Energy continues to focus on our mission to provide safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy and on our disciplined financial management to provide ongoing value to our customers and shareholders."

MGE Energy has paid cash dividends for more than 110 years. 

XCEL Energy Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Report

Xcel Energy has reported 2025 second quarter GAAP earnings of $444 million, or $0.75 per share, compared with $302 million, or $0.54 per share in the same period in 2024.  Second quarter ongoing earnings reflect increased recovery of infrastructure investments, partially offset by higher interest charges, depreciation and O&M expenses.

“Xcel Energy continues to deliver on our commitments to our customers, communities and investors,” according to Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and CEO of Xcel Energy. “During the second quarter, we made considerable progress on investments needed to serve unprecedented growth in electric demand and to improve resiliency and reliability of our systems. In Texas and New Mexico, we filed our recommended portfolio for nearly 5,200 MW of new generation, of which 4,500 MW will be company owned. We also continue to make progress reducing risk from wildfires and extreme weather on our system, with both the Colorado and Texas commissions approving our settlements for our Wildfire Mitigation and System Resiliency Plans.”

Xcel Energy Declares Dividend on Common Stock

The Board of Directors of Xcel Energy has declared a quarterly dividend on its common stock of 57 cents per share. The dividends are payable October 20, 2025, to shareholders of record on September 15, 2025.

Alliant Energy Corporation has announced U.S. generally accepted accounting principles consolidated and non-GAAP consolidated unaudited earnings per share (EPS) for the three months ended June 30 as follows:

Utilities and Corporate Services - Alliant Energy’s Utilities and Alliant Energy Corporate Services, Inc. (Corporate Services) operations generated $0.74 per share of GAAP EPS in the second quarter of 2025, which was $0.41 per share higher than the second quarter of 2024. The primary drivers of higher EPS were items in 2024 not normally associated with ongoing operations and described below in the discussion of non-GAAP adjustments, higher revenue requirements from capital investments, and estimated temperature impacts on retail electric and gas sales. These items were partially offset by higher depreciation and financing expenses.

Non-utility and Parent - Alliant Energy’s Non-utility and Parent operations generated ($0.10) per share of GAAP EPS in the second quarter of 2025, which was $0.07 per share lower than the second quarter of 2024. The lower EPS was primarily driven by lower equity income from corporate venture investments, higher financing expense and timing of income taxes.

“Our solid financial performance this quarter underscores the resilience of our regulated utility model and our ability to advance key operational and strategic initiatives while positioning us for long-term success,” according to Lisa Barton, Alliant Energy President and CEO.

The Bad River tribe and environmental groups have made their case that the state should overturn key permits issued to Canadian energy firm Enbridge as it seeks to reroute an oil and gas pipeline around the tribe’s reservation.

The state held a contested case hearing in Ashland last month after the tribe, along with Midwest Environmental Advocates and Clean Wisconsin, challenged permits for the project in December. The proceedings will continue through October 3rd.

In separate challenges, the tribe and environmental advocates argued that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources failed to comply with state law when it granted a wetland and waterway permit along with a construction storm water permit for Enbridge’s Line 5 relocation project.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has lost 500 positions over roughly two decades, leading to slower permitting times and loss of capacity for habitat management. The head of the agency’s board called the decline a “slow, insidious loss of resources.”

According to Chairman Bill Smith, steady loss of positions combined with inflation means less work being done to protect natural resources and the environment.

“The department is nothing more than a steward that takes care of your resources, your access to the outdoors, your health and welfare,” Smith said. “It’s being affected by this gradual and slow, insidious loss of resources. In very simple terms, every biennial budget, you are losing production (and) you’re losing work.” 

Under the current state budget, the DNR is down 500 positions since the beginning of the 2003-05 biennium when it had nearly 2,975 positions, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

The DNR is authorized to spend more than $1.25 billion under its budget. At the end of the current biennium in 2027, the agency will have nearly 2,474 full-time equivalent employees. That’s the lowest number of authorized positions at the agency since 1981.

The Kegonsa Research Center has been named 2025 North American Agrivoltaics Dual-Use Plan of the Year. The award recognizes the UW-Madison Kegonsa Research Center Agrivoltaics Field, part of Alliant Energy’s Customer-Hosted Renewables program, for “outstanding excellence in innovation, design, performance and/or function of a planned, but not yet constructed, dual-use (agrivoltaics or ecovoltaics) solar development project.” Agrivoltaics is the use of land for both agriculture and solar generation.  

Located on university-owned land just west of Lake Kegonsa, UW-Madison and Alliant Energy partnered on the solar and agricultural research project, raising awareness about opportunities to co-locate renewable energy and agricultural activities.  

At maximum output, the 2.25-megawatt solar project is expected to generate enough energy to power more than 450 homes. UW–Madison will receive renewable energy credits generated by the solar project, which will provide proof that power was generated from a renewable energy resource, distributed to the electric grid and the University is entitled to its attributes.    

The project is advancing sustainability, research and energy goals by allowing students and faculty to study soil, water, plant and animal interactions between the solar array and its immediate area. These studies will help inform costs and benefits associated with future solar energy projects in Wisconsin and beyond.  

The site includes the UW Physical Sciences Lab, a research and development lab that provides a range of services, including the design, fabrication and calibration of scientific instrumentation for research projects.  

The innovative Columbia Energy Storage Project, a partnership between the co-owners of the Columbia Energy Center near Portage, Wisconsin, has received approval from State regulators.

Energy Dome’s CO2 battery located in Sardinia, Italy.

The Columbia Energy Storage Project is the first long-duration energy storage system of its kind to be developed in the United States. The 18-megawatt project is designed to improve grid stability and deliver enough electricity to power approximately 18,000 homes for 10 hours on a single charge.

The added reliability and dispatchability provided by the project will help to further enable Madison Gas and Electric's (MGE's) ongoing transition toward greater use of carbon-free energy. It also will help to manage long-term customer costs because projects like this one enable the partner utilities to store energy to help meet peak demand.

The project will use a revolutionary closed-loop process, designed by Energy Dome, to take energy from the grid and convert carbon dioxide (CO2) gas into a compressed liquid form for long-term storage. Then, when the stored energy is needed, the system will convert the liquid CO2 back to a gas, which will power a turbine to create electricity.

The project will be built south of Portage in the Town of Pacific, near the current Columbia Energy Center, which is co-owned by Alliant Energy, Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) and MGE. MGE is a minority owner of the power plant. This site allows the use of existing electrical infrastructure while the partners work to advance the next generation of sustainable energy.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and be completed by the end of 2027.

Google has hosted a special announcement celebration in Cedar Rapids to officially confirm their data center project at Alliant Energy’s Big Cedar Industrial Center. The project is Google’s second data center location in the state of Iowa: the first is in Council Bluffs.

Two data centers will now occupy space at Big Cedar Industrial Center with both Google and QTS locating at the site. QTS announced their project in February 2025.

Beyond the project confirmation, Google also announced an additional $7 billion investment in Iowa. $6.8 billion has already been invested in the state by the company.