MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As Wisconsin's data center industry continues to evolve, the state's energy industry is having to evolve along with it.

New projects and proposals require massive energy supplies, and that means new generating plants and new construction costs.

Advocacy groups have feared customers could be stuck paying for tech companies' needs. But so far, that is not the case.

In the latest installment of our ongoing series on data centers, we dig into the energy impacts.

We Energies customers will not pay for any construction of new power plants needed to run hyperscale data centers.

The state's Public Service Commission recently ruled We Energies must charge data centers different rates and require tech companies to pay for new power plants and infrastructure.

But there are still many concerns about a strained power grid, pollution and health impacts, and higher rates.

Tom Content is the executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, a consumer advocacy group. Content told us recently, "We're more confident today than we were before that decision by the PSC."

Energy insiders and industry advocates finally exhaled in April after more than a year.

They were awaiting a decision that would impact the state and the data center industry for decades: could regular customers be on the hook for new power plants needed to power data centers.

At the April 24 meeting, PSC commissioner Kristy Nieto said, "Existing Wisconsin customers should not pay a single cent to subsidize the service of data centers or very large customers. Not now and not decades from now."

The state's three-person PSC has authority over how utilities operate, what they build, and what they charge.

In March 2025, We Energies submitted an application to treat data centers and any other Very Large Customers differently from smaller customers.

The new VLC classification will protect the typical consumer from paying for new power plants and other infrastructure needed to support hyperscale data centers.

"All of that will be paid for by the data centers," said Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for We Energies. He added, "It's been our intentions since day one, to their credit, the data centers have also said since day one, they want to pay their full share."

The energy system has three elements: generating electricity at power plants, transmitting it across the electrical grid, and distributing it to the end users.

The way energy is regulated in Wisconsin, utilities cannot deny anyone service. If a data center is approved, We Energies must plug them in.

But data centers use far more energy than homes and businesses.

Content said, "The dollars involved, the amount of energy involved, just the unprecedented scale of data centers."

The amount of energy hyperscale data centers use up is hard to fathom, and different AI models have different energy needs.

According to research from MIT, one text-generating model needs the energy equivalent to running a microwave for eight seconds to create the average AI text response.

To make a five-second AI video, another model uses the energy equivalent to running a microwave for an hour.

Right now, We Energies can produce 5,000 megawatts, or five gigawatts, of electricity for its 1.1 million customers.

But to get the Microsoft and Vantage data centers online, they need to build for 4.9 more gigawatts.

Content said, "Here's two customers, that, within a short five or ten years, are going to use just as much electricity as over a million customers."

Environmental advocates have worried for years.

Abby Novinska-Lois, the executive director at Healthy Climate Wisconsin, said, "And we're really concerned about the amount of air pollution that we'd see from essentially a doubling of that grid."

Conway said, "But all customers will benefit through a stronger grid, more diverse energy sources."

But energy needs could soon expand again.

Conway said We Energies is always having discussions with potential customers, and not just data centers.

But they're the profit-generating prize.

On a recent earnings call, We Energies CEO Scott Lauber told investors he hopes to share more information this fall on future data center projects. "I think, very optimistic now that we have the final VLC tariff that we'll see that final order come out in the next few weeks with a little more clarity. I expect to have more information on our third quarter call."