WEC Energy Group is an American energy company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It provides electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states.
Contents
Subsidiaries
Wisconsin
We Energies, the umbrella name for Wisconsin Electric Power and Wisconsin Gas, provides electricity and natural gas to customers in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation provides electricity and natural gas to customers in northeastern and northcentral Wisconsin
Bluewater Gas Storage provides natural gas storage and hub services for We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service
WEC Infrastructure designs, builds and owns electric generating plants
Wispark develops and invests in real estate, industrial/office buildings and urban redevelopment projects
Wisconsin River Power Company, WEC Energy Group owns 50% while Alliant Energy owns the other 50%
Illinois
Peoples Energy provides natural gas to customers in the city of Chicago
North Shore Gas provides natural gas to customers in Chicago's northern suburbs
Minnesota
Minnesota Energy Resources Corporation provides natural gas to customers in Minnesota
Michigan
Michigan Gas Utilities Corporation provides natural gas to customers in lower Michigan
Upper Michigan Energy Resources provides electric and natural gas to customers in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
History
1896 The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company was formed as a subsidiary of the North American Company to provide interurban rail service in a 12,000-square-mile (31,000 km2) area of southeastern Wisconsin. In time, the company began selling electricity not needed to power the interurban trains to individuals and businesses.
1919 Experiments at the company's East Wells Power Plant (then called Oneida Street Station) in downtown Milwaukee, proved that use of pulverized coal reduced the cost of producing electric power and conserved fuel.
1921 Wisconsin Electric Power Company is formed by the North American Company to build and operate the Lakeside Power Plant in St. Francis, Wisconsin. Lakeside was the world's first power plant to burn pulverized coal exclusively.
1935 The first of five 80-megawatt units at Port Washington Power Plant was brought on line. From 1935 to 1948, Port Washington was the most efficient coal-fueled power plant in the world.
1938 Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light was merged into Wisconsin Electric.
1941 Wisconsin Electric purchased Wisconsin Gas & Electric Company and Wisconsin Michigan Power Company, which also had been under the North American Company.
1946 Wisconsin Electric becomes an independent company, no longer part of the North American Company.
1953 Wisconsin Electric placed into service the first 120-megawatt unit at Oak Creek Power Plant. Seven additional units were completed through 1968.
1970 Wisconsin Electric's 908-megawatt Point Beach Nuclear Plant began operation and gained a worldwide reputation for efficiency.
1980 Wisconsin Electric placed the first 580-megawatt unit at Pleasant Prairie into service. A second unit was added in 1985.
Primergy merger
On May 3, 1995, Wisconsin Energy Corporation and Northern States Power Company (NYSE: NSP) each filed a Securities and Exchange Commission Form 8-K to combine in a merger-of-equals transaction to form Primergy Corporation. It would have been the 10th largest investor-owned electric and gas utility company in the United States, based on market capitalization at that time of about US$6.0 billion. NSP would have been the nominal survivor, and the merged company would be headquartered in Minneapolis (headquarters of the old NSP), but the merged company would have been registered in Wisconsin.
On May 16, 1997, both CEOs announced that the boards of directors of both companies had terminated the merger plan because of approval delays by the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC, and state regulators in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They also stated that regulatory agencies were changing their merger policies as they were considering the companies' filing and that further delay would reduce the benefits of the Primergy transaction.
The delay already had put the merger five months behind schedule and had reduced earnings for both utilities by a total of US$58 million to that point. In addition, Wisconsin Energy's stock had fallen about 13% since early 1995 when the deal had been announced, while NSP's stock had risen by 6%. The case was considered to be a bellwether in the utilities industry, putting an end to the rapid pace of mergers and acquisitions that had been ongoing up to then.