Mike Peters is President & CEO of WPPI Energy, which provides wholesale electric power, forward-thinking services and effective advocacy for Waupun Utilities and 50 other locally owned not-for-profit utilities. Together, WPPI members serve more than 220,000 homes and businesses in Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Iowa.
Strength You Can Rely On
Mike Peters, President & CEO
WPPI Energy
Community-owned, not-for-profit utilities like Waupun Utilities are known for something simple but important: reliability. These public power communities tend to get better, more dependable service than those served by other types of utilities, and Waupun is no exception. What many customers don’t see is the work behind that reliability. Not-for-profit WPPI Energy stands behind your local utility as its wholesale power supplier. WPPI is accountable to all its 51 members including Waupun Utilities. Each year, I report to those member utilities on the state of WPPI. Because Waupun Utilities is owned by and accountable to your community, WPPI is accountable to you too, by extension. That’s why I also share a summary of that report with communities like yours each year.
Planning for the Long Term
WPPI members plan for their communities’ power needs years in advance, long before those needs actually arrive. Last year, members voted to extend their long-term nuclear power agreement at Point Beach, choosing the certainty of a known, stable cost over possibly lower-cost but less predictable alternatives. This year, members are pursuing a joint ownership stake in a new natural gas plant sized to fit the membership’s actual needs, a resource no single member utility could access cost-effectively alone. Together, these decisions keep Waupun Utilities’ power supply reliable and local power costs down for the long term.
Keeping Costs Down
Public power utilities are also known for their lower costs, and WPPI members are no exception. Over the long term, and including today, WPPI’s average wholesale power cost to members ranks among the lowest of the region’s potential suppliers. That strength carries over: as a whole, WPPI member communities also enjoy some of the region’s more competitive retail rates. Sharing resources through joint action is a big part of how your local utility keeps costs down while maintaining reliable service.
Shared Technology, Services and Advocacy
WPPI members also share forward-thinking technology, helpful programs and an effective voice in front of policymakers. This year, member utilities launched a new program rewarding customers who let their smart thermostats help manage energy use during the highest-demand hours, and WPPI members continue to be recognized nationally as leaders among public power utilities. On the policy side, WPPI is working directly with lawmakers and our state and national public power organizations on energy policy issues that matter for your community, including preserving the tax-exempt municipal bond financing that helps us deliver a meaningful local cost advantage for WPPI member utilities and their customers.
Shared Commitment for the Long Term
This fall, the WPPI membership is extending the long-term wholesale power supply agreements that underpin their nearly five decades of shared joint action success. The response is very positive. As of WPPI’s Annual Meeting on Sept. 17, 26 member communities had taken the local steps needed to extend, with more expected to follow in the weeks ahead.
Strength You Can Rely On
Waupun Utilities’ strength comes from being locally owned. WPPI’s role is to help keep it that way: strong, competitive and well-positioned for the long term, with the kind of diverse, competitive power supply and shared resources that would be difficult or impossible for any single community to build alone. That’s the strength Waupun can continue to rely on.
