Reading Time: < 1 minute

Our newsletters:

A great way to stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. 👍

The Wednesday Report
Wisconsin Weekly
Forward

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Wisconsin electricity rates – for residential, industrial and commercial users – have exceeded regional averages annually for 20 years.

From 2003 through 2022, Wisconsin rates exceeded the averages in each of the three user categories for eight Midwest states, Wisconsin Public Service Commission reports show.

For the three categories combined, Wisconsin’s rate was second-highest in 2023-24 and third-highest in 2024-25 among 12 central region states, federal Energy Information Administration figures show.

Here are the July 2025 cents-per-kilowatt hour rates in Wisconsin versus the north central region average:

Residential: $18.30/$17.84

Commercial: $13.39/$13.31

Industrial: $9.87/$9.46

Electric bills rose for residential customers of Wisconsin’s five largest utilities, according to the Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board. For example, the average monthly We Energies bill for a typical residential customer was $128.65 in 2024, twice as high as $56.18 for 2004.

Booming data center construction in Wisconsin could affect utility rates.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Wisconsin Public Service Commission: Strategic Energy Assessment reports
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Electric Power Monthly
Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board: We Energies residential average bills
Wisconsin Watch: Data center construction is booming, and it could affect utility rates

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Scroll down to copy and paste the code of our article into your CMS. The codes for images, graphics and other embeddable elements may not transfer exactly as they appear on our site. *** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. *** You are welcome to republish our articles for free using the following ground rules.

Credit should be given, in this format: “By Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin Watch”
Editing material is prohibited, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and in-house style (for example, using “Waunakee, Wis.” instead of “Waunakee” or changing “yesterday” to “last week”)
Other than minor cosmetic and font changes, you may not change the structural appearance or visual format of a story.
If published online, you must include the links and link to wisconsinwatch.org
If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post.
Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product.
Don’t extract, store or resell Wisconsin Watch content as a database.
Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads.
Your website must include a prominent way to contact you.
Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled.
Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use.
If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately.

For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org

Have Wisconsin electricity price increases exceeded the Midwest average for 20 years?

by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
September 29, 2025

<h1>Have Wisconsin electricity price increases exceeded the Midwest average for 20 years?</h1>
<p class="byline">by Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch <br />September 29, 2025</p>

<div class="wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:26% auto">
<figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img src="https://wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Wisconsin_Watch_fact_brief-782x409.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1278996 size-full" /></figure>
<div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<p><em><em><a href="https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/">Wisconsin Watch</a></em> partners with&nbsp;<a href="https://gigafact.org/">Gigafact</a>&nbsp;to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. <a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2023/05/how-wisconsin-watch-checks-claims-for-its-gigafact-fact-briefs/">Read our methodology</a> to learn how we check claims.</em></p>
</p></div>
</div>
<div class="wp-block-group">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Yes.</h2>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://gigafact-app-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/factBriefImage.jpeg" alt="" style="width:150px" /></figure>
</p></div>
<p>Wisconsin electricity rates – for residential, industrial and commercial users – have exceeded regional&nbsp;averages annually for 20 years.</p>
<p>From 2003 through 2022, Wisconsin rates exceeded the averages in each of the three user categories for eight Midwest states, Wisconsin Public Service Commission <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qCaV_7PpHN6sun0SLri0EQ5WxEIjbHDAsUifLUdg1tk/edit?usp=sharing">reports</a> show.</p>
<p>For the three categories combined, Wisconsin’s rate was second-highest in 2023-24 and third-highest in 2024-25 among 12 central region states, federal Energy Information Administration <a href="https://archive.is/wip/0eCus">figures</a> show.</p>
<p>Here are the July 2025 cents-per-kilowatt hour <a href="https://archive.is/kDZQq">rates</a> in Wisconsin versus the north central region average:</p>
<p>Residential: $18.30/$17.84</p>
<p>Commercial: $13.39/$13.31</p>
<p>Industrial: $9.87/$9.46</p>
<p>Electric bills rose for residential customers of Wisconsin’s five largest utilities, according to the Wisconsin Citizens Utility Board. For example, the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19OMLR98feJpn4G6VR6jAtzB-5woc4HwS/edit?usp=sharing&amp;ouid=112172275936347123803&amp;rtpof=true&amp;sd=true">average monthly</a> We Energies bill for a typical residential customer was $128.65 in 2024, twice as high as $56.18 for 2004.</p>
<p>Booming data center construction in Wisconsin <a href="https://wisconsinwatch.org/2025/05/wisconsin-utility-data-center-energy-tech-electricity-power-rates/">could affect</a> utility rates.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sources</h2>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://gigafact.org/fact-brief-quiz/wisconsinwatch"><img src="https://wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/take_fact_brief_quiz.ea0075f4-1-782x440.jpg" alt="Think you know the facts? Put your knowledge to the test. Take the Fact Brief quiz" class="wp-image-1300309" /></a></figure></p>
<p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/2025/09/wisconsin-electricity-rate-price-increase-midwest-average-energy/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org&quot;&gt;Wisconsin Watch&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/wisconsinwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-WCIJ_IconOnly_FullColor_RGB-1.png?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p>
&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1309695&amp;amp;ga4=G-D2S69Y9TDB&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://wisconsinwatch.org/2025/09/wisconsin-electricity-rate-price-increase-midwest-average-energy/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/wisconsinwatch.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Have Wisconsin electricity price increases exceeded the Midwest average for 20 years?

Our newsletters:

Yes.

Sources

Read More Fact Briefs

Do most people arrested by ICE have a criminal conviction?

Do solar panels release more emissions than burning fossil fuels?

Latest stories

No, Mr. President. Wisconsin’s voter roll figures aren’t a sign of ‘fraud waiting to happen’

Wisconsin debates how to pay for the power-hungry AI boom

Municipal judge rules against man challenging private beach access

Tom Kertscher / Wisconsin WatchState fact brief reporter