Here’s a fun fact about your electric company: the government promises it a profit. That’s a promise, not a chance.
That’s how regulated utilities work. Nobody else is allowed to string wires to your house, so the state lets the monopoly earn a set return on what it invests, and a regulator signs off on the number. Wisconsin’s version is playing out right now, and the numbers are worth a look. WEC Energy Group, the parent of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, made $1.6 billion in profit last year and another $1.1 billion in just the first half of 2026, up from $969.6 million the same stretch a year ago. Both utilities are asking the state to raise the guaranteed return on equity from 9.8 percent to 9.9 percent. A consumer watchdog says it should drop to 9.1.
Meanwhile, We Energies wants base electric rates up 4.7 percent next year, roughly $13 a month for a typical household, then another 4.5 percent the year after. WPS is asking for 6.3 percent in 2027, about $11 a month. Add it up and you’re looking at around $20 a month more by 2028 if you’re a We Energies customer. The requests also include millions a year for trade association dues and board expenses, which is a fun line item to make the customer cover.
Wisconsin isn’t special here, which is what makes it maddening. Consumer Reports says utilities asked for $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, double the year before, and average residential rates jumped 10.2 percent in the twelve months ending this March. Duke Energy, sitting on roughly $5 billion in profit, sent more than 382,000 disconnection notices in a single month.
Let me be clear about what I’m not saying. I don’t care that these companies are big or that they make money. Grids cost real money to build and maintain, and if a utility has to spend billions on lines and plants, it should earn a fair return. I’m happy to pay for reliable power the same way I’m happy to pay for a road. That’s a shared community good, and somebody has to run it.
But a monopoly with a guaranteed margin isn’t a scrappy competitor earning its keep in a market. It’s a business with the risk taken out, and that changes what “fair” means. When the customer has no other option and the return is written into law, the regulator is the only thing standing in for competition. If that regulator rubber-stamps whatever number the utility opens with, the whole arrangement is just a polite way of sending you a bill.
The good news is this part is fixable without new taxes or new agencies. Regulators can push the return down and keep the dues and boardroom perks out of the rate base, so the utilities have to justify each dollar before it lands on your statement. WPS has a public hearing on September 29 and comments are open into early October, so this is one of the rare fights where an ordinary person showing up can actually matter.
Your utility doesn’t need your sympathy. It needs someone to ask why the guarantee keeps going up when the bills already have.
My two cents: if the profit is guaranteed, the price should have to earn it.