WEC Energy Group Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Data Center Tariff Approval Fuels Growth and Execution Confidence

Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to WEC Energy Group’s conference call for first quarter 2026 results. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast, and all participants are in a listen-only mode at this time. After the presentation, the conference will be open to analysts for questions and answers. In conjunction with this call, a package of detailed financial information is posted at wecenergygroup.com. A replay will be available approximately two hours after the conclusion of this call. Before the conference call begins, please note that all statements in the presentation, other than historical facts, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to change at any time. Such statements are based on management’s expectations at the time that they are made.

In addition to the assumptions and other factors referred to in connection with the statements, factors described in WEC Energy Group’s latest Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated. During the discussions, referenced earnings per share will be based on diluted earnings per share unless otherwise noted. Now it’s my pleasure to introduce Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer of WEC Energy Group.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss our results for the 1st quarter of 2026. Here with me are Xia Liu, our Chief Financial Officer, and Beth Straka, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. As you saw from our news release this morning, we reported 1st quarter 2026 earnings of $2.45 a share. We’re off to a solid start to the year. Our results reflect our continued focus on execution, financial discipline, and operating efficiency. Just a couple of weeks ago, we received an oral decision from the Wisconsin Commission on the tariff we proposed for very large customers or VLCs. We believe this decision solidifies our future growth and protects all customers and shareholders by making sure data centers pay their full share. I’ll provide more information on that shortly.

We’re on track to deliver results in line with our 2026 earnings guidance of $5.51 to $5.61 a share. This of course, assumes normal weather for the remainder of the year. In a few minutes, Xia will walk through our financial results and outlook in more detail. First, let me highlight the strong economic growth in our region that’s the foundation of our robust capital plan. We continue to see significant economic development in Wisconsin. Just last month, Microsoft brought its first data center online in Mount Pleasant ahead of schedule, and construction continues at the site. As a reminder, Microsoft has purchased more than 2,200 acres to date in the I-94 corridor, south of Milwaukee. We are preparing to serve forecasted demand of 2.6 GW in this region through 2030, with opportunity for further expansion.

To the north of Milwaukee, you’ll recall that Vantage Data Centers has signed on to develop facilities for Oracle on approximately 1,900 acres. Vantage continues to work on the initial phase of its data center project, which is planned for 670 acres. Vantage has stated that it’s expected to invest $15 billion to complete this phase in 2028. Construction continues, and the first facility could come online late in 2027. We currently have 1.3 gigawatts of demand for this Vantage site in our forecast over the next 5 years. Looking to the future, this site has the potential to reach 3.5 gigawatts of demand over time. There’s other notable growth in the state.

As a recent example, Milwaukee Tool has announced plans to further expand its campus in our territory, including a new research and development facility. Waukesha Engine also announced plans to expand upon its local operation and employee base. We’re starting to see good housing development. In fact, realtor.com recognized Racine County, home of the Microsoft site, as one of the nation’s hottest housing markets. We’re committed to meeting the growing demand across our service areas as we invest in our system for increased capacity and reliability. Our five-year capital plan includes thirty-seven and a half billion dollars of projected investments. It’s based on projects that are low risk and highly executable, with a good portion dedicated to the very large customers. By the end of 2030, we expect approximately 15% of our asset base to be attributable to these very large customers.

As you recall, we project long-term earnings per share growth of 7% to 8% a year on a compound annual basis between 2026 and 2030. This is based on the midpoint of our 2025 adjusted guidance. We expect that growth rate to accelerate to the upper half of the range starting in 2028. Let me give you an update on our capital projects. This March, we had a solar facility go into service with total capital of about $225 million. The Wisconsin Commission has approved the purchase of three additional solar projects and a battery storage project. In total, we plan to invest approximately $730 million in these newly approved projects. Construction continues on the new natural gas facilities in Paris and Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

We have our labor force and supply chain lined up to bring these projects online according to schedule. We expect the Paris RICE units and the Oak Creek combustion turbines to start coming online in late 2027. Also at our Oak Creek site, we recently announced plans to extend the operating lives of units 7 and 8. We expect to have the units available to meet high energy demand periods through 2027, rather than retiring them at the end of this year. The decision is based on 2 critical factors, reliability and affordability for our customers. Overall, we have a high level of confidence in our ability to execute on our capital plan and continue our growth trajectory. Turning to the regulatory front. First, let’s update you on Wisconsin and our VLC tariff.

After completing its review, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin verbally approved the tariff structure on April 24th. We expect the written order in the few weeks. As a reminder, this tariff provides a balanced approach. Reliable electric service for our very large customers with a predictable cost profile, protection of other customers from bearing any costs to serve these very large customers, protection of the company’s financial health, and support for economic development and growth in the region. The commission approved the return on equity in the range of 10.48%-10.98% and an equity ratio of 57%. For our non-VLC customers, on April 1st, we filed rate requests with the Wisconsin Commission for forward-looking test years 2027 and 2028.

Our proposed plans would help us continue to strengthen key infrastructure and deliver the energy our customers depend on while remaining focused on affordability for our customers. We expect final orders by the end of the year with new rates effective in January 2027 and 2028. In Illinois, just last week, we filed a proposed settlement with the Illinois Commerce Commission. If approved, these agreements will resolve all open proceedings related to the customer’s uncollectible and QIP riders. As you recall, we filed a rate request for our Illinois utilities in January for test year 2027. A key driver of this request is to support the pipe retirement program in Chicago. The Illinois Commerce Commission continues to review our filing. We expect a decision by the end of the year. In summary, we remain focused on executing our capital investment plan.

Now I’ll turn things over to Xia.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs0: Thank you, Scott. Our first quarter 2026 earnings of $2.45 per share reflect an $0.18 increase compared to the first quarter of 2025. Our earnings packet includes a comparison of first quarter results on page 12. I’ll walk through the significant drivers. Starting with our utility operations, earnings were $0.17 higher versus the first quarter of 2025. Let me highlight a couple of key drivers. Weather negatively impacted quarter-over-quarter earnings by approximately $0.02. Compared to normal conditions, we estimate that weather had a $0.01 negative impact in the first quarter of 2026 versus a $0.01 positive impact for the same period in 2025. Rate-based growth contributed $0.17 to earnings, including $0.09 of incremental AFUDC equity from projects under construction. Day-to-day O&M was $0.05 favorable in the first quarter.

This includes a $0.02 gain from a planned asset sale in Illinois during first quarter this year. The rest of the favorability was largely due to the timing of certain maintenance and benefits costs, which we expect to reverse throughout the rest of the year. For 2026, we continue to expect day-to-day O&M to increase 3%-5% when compared to 2025 actuals. Let me give you some color on our weather normal retail electric deliveries, excluding the Iron Ore Mine. Compared to Q1 last year, we saw 1.3% growth this quarter, led by the large commercial and industrial class, which grew 3%. This is in line with our forecast. For the year, we still expect electric sales to grow around 1.5%.

At American Transmission Company, earnings increased $0.01 compared to the first quarter of 2025 as a result of continued capital investment. Turning to our energy infrastructure segment, earnings were $0.04 higher in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, driven largely by higher operating income from WEC Infrastructure. WEC also benefited from a full quarter of operations from the Hardin III Solar Energy Center acquired in February 2025. Next, you’ll see that earnings from the corporate and other segment increased $0.03, driven by favorable tax timing. In terms of common equity, we locked in about $455 million in Q1 this year. This includes $25 million issued under our employee benefit plan and $430 million via the ATM program under forward contracts that we will settle in the future.

Remember, we expect to issue up to $1.1 billion of common equity this year. Through the first quarter, we have accounted for almost half of our expected equity needs for 2026. Going forward, as a reminder, any incremental capital beyond the current plan is expected to be funded with 50% equity content. Let me comment on guidance. As Scott mentioned earlier, we are reaffirming our 2026 earnings guidance of $5.51 to $5.61 per share, assuming normal weather for the rest of the year. For the second quarter, we’re expecting a range of $0.76 to $0.82 per share. This accounts for April weather and assumes normal weather for the rest of the quarter. With that, I’ll turn it back to Scott.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you, Xia. As you may recall, our board, this January meeting, increased the dividend by 6.7%. This marks the 23rd consecutive year that our shareholders will be rewarded with higher dividends. The increase is consistent with our plan to grow the dividend rate at the 6.5%-7%. We’re optimistic about continued growth in the region and our company’s future. Operator, we are now ready for the question and answer portion of the call.

Operator: Your first question comes from the line of Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs1: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. It’s actually Alex on for Shar. Thanks for taking our questions.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sounds good, Alex.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs1: Just obviously, you’re seeing a lot of growth on the data center front. You know, you have Microsoft and Vantage projects, and you’ve kind of highlighted some upsides there. Can you maybe talk to a little bit more to the extent that you can? You know, are you seeing additional interest from other hyperscaler customers in the state? Just to add on, there’s been, you know, obviously a lot of local opposition in some parts of the state. Can you just talk about, you know, your strategy and overall confidence level around attracting new customers despite some of the headlines we’ve seen? Thanks.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. Sure. Let me kind of phrase this and look at it in total. When you think about, you know, we’ve got Microsoft and the Southeastern Wisconsin region and then north a Vantage site. When you look at that, we have about 3.9 gigawatts in our 5-year plan. If you just look at the acreage and do some back of the envelope math, you could see how these sites, which are already been approved and have the ability to put data centers on, could add another 4-5 gigawatts of capacity on those sites alone. We see tremendous growth on already the available sites that we have in the works, and construction is starting on a good portion of them. You think of the other data centers.

You know, we are in discussions with a few others. I think, you know, very optimistic now that we have the final VLC tariff, and we’ll see that final order come out in the next few weeks, a little more clarity. You know, I expect to have more information on our third quarter call, anticipate we hopefully will have another announcement to make on that third quarter call.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs1: Got it. That’s very helpful. I guess just, switching gears here, just want to touch on Point Beach. You know, you’ve obviously mentioned you’re in discussions there. Just if you were to, you know, go ahead with building sort of incremental generation, can you maybe provide some sort of sensitivity around the CapEx opportunity there and just maybe any sense on possible timing? Thanks.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. We’re going through the planning process right now. We always go through the summer and go through our generation planning process and working with our very large customers to factor in the additional growth, along with what we need on the generation side to serve our native load. As we talked about on the last call, you know, that Point Beach PPA, the prices are pretty high. We’re gonna look at affordability for our customers. At this time, we’re planning that, you know, we’re gonna have to replace that, and we’ll put that in our 5-year plan this fall, most likely replace it with some gas, perhaps a combined cycle. Remember that PPA ends, the first unit ends in like 2030, and the second unit ends in 2033. We have some time, but it’ll start working into our planning cycle.

As just a rule of thumb, about a gigawatt, you know, is about $2 billion-$2.5 billion. This is, you know, over those 2 units, it’s about $500 for each, so that’s about a gigawatt. When we look at our planning assumptions, it’s about $2 billion-$2.5 billion for every gigawatt we add. You think about that as we also think about the very large customers. Hope that helps.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs1: Great. I’ll leave it there. Yeah, definitely. Thank you. I’ll leave it there.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Richard Sunderland with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Richard Sunderland, Analyst, Truist Securities: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for the time today.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Absolutely, Richard.

Richard Sunderland, Analyst, Truist Securities: Picking up some of the commentary on the VLC tariff, I think the revisions from the commission saw the threshold move down to a lower level, maybe 100 megawatts, if I’m recalling correctly. You know, curious if that captures more load than you were expecting to run through the VLC tariff and any ramifications on your plan, you know, as a result of that. It sounds like sort of customer interest overall now that you’ve gotten to the other side of a VLC outcome, is sort of firming up. Again, just curious, you know, more broadly in the context of that, you know, load side revision, how you’re thinking about the tariff impacting economic development going forward.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. A great question. When you think about it, we proposed 500 MW, which is, you know, it’s smaller than the 2 data centers that we have going right now. The load going down to the 100 MW, we don’t have any current customers that fall into that range. It doesn’t affect any of our current customers. We’ll see as we talk to future load, you know, if there’s something in that 200 MW, how does that deal and how does it look at the economics with our tariff. We’ll address that if we see something at the time. Right now, moving it to 100 does not affect our economic development in either direction.

Maybe a little bit positive that it actually opened up the door for some smaller data centers, and we can show that they’re paying their full share. Not concerned at all about going to the 100 MW.

Richard Sunderland, Analyst, Truist Securities: Perfect. Thanks for framing that. Turning to Illinois, it sounds like again, you know, more progress that you’ve been able to put up in the state, although still more to come on the rate case as well. Could you speak a little bit more to the data points that are sort of emerging along the way here, how you see conversations trending overall in the state and kind of what you have an eye to over the balance of the year to get those rate orders?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. Sure. A couple things. You know, we just filed the settlement, which I think has taken off 12 cases, related to uncollectibles in the, in the previous QIP riders. An extremely long period. We filed that just the other day. That had the support of the AG, the ICC staff, and the Citizens Utility Board was involved in that signing. It’s great to see that signed and that in front of the commission now. We have our rate case in front of the commission. Of course, one of the key elements there is gonna be the Paris RICE plant retirement plan, and as we’re ramping that up, that we expect to see the first testimony from our, the ICC staff and other interveners, I think by the end of the day today. We’ll see where that comes out.

We’re just executing on our plan, starting to ramp up the Pipe Replacement Program that we’ve talked about. We’re ramping it up this year. It’ll get about $200 million this year, and it’ll ramp up in 2027 and 2028. We’re just gonna execute on the program. We’re following along all the direction that we received in the order from the Pipe Retirement Program on having workshops and working through those workshops and really have a lot of transparency on our program. We’re hitting the ground running. Feel really good about the progress we’re having and our communication with our customers and keeping the ICC informed along with the safety monitor.

Those are kind of the 3 key elements, and that’ll evolve during the summer here as we start seeing the testimony and more results of the settlement with Illinois.

Richard Sunderland, Analyst, Truist Securities: Great. Thank you.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Hey, good afternoon. Hope everyone’s doing well. Can you hear me?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yep, we can hear you fine, Nick.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Hey, great. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, I just wanted to ask, Scott, on the, you talked about the acreage that you have that is kind of fully permitted and ready to go. I think you said like, you know, up to 4 gigawatt potential number. You know, maybe just acknowledging the fact that the hyperscaler capex is continuing to kind of increase here, and if customers want to kind of maximize that, can you just kind of talk about your ability to, you know, execute on that from a supply chain and equipment standpoint?

Just how do we kind of think about how much could actually fall into the plan in the third quarter, just based on the conversations you’re having and, you know, now that the VLC is finalized, and it seems that, you know, everyone is happy with that? Maybe you could just expand on that a little bit more. Thanks.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. Sure. As we kind of peel back that question, and we’ve been working with these very large customers, as you know, behind the scenes for years and working with, you know, our developer and our generation and planning team, and we feel very confident we can deliver all that’s needed to supply the load growth as we ramp this up. It’s a little early before I, you know, talk about what’s going to be on that third quarter call, but feel for sure there’ll be increment added in our third quarter. It’s just we’re still working with them on this individual amounts, and we’ll-- more to come on third quarter. Feel good about the update we’ll have then.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Great. Then just, you know, maybe just one more thing and just keeping with the megawatts here on Point Beach. Is it the base idea that you’re going to bring in the full replacement, or could you just be kind of targeting half of that to start and then, you know, on the next plan?

You know, part of the PPA that rolls off, I think, in the mid-2030 timeframe.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah, that’s a great question. When you think about that first one is in 2030. For sure that first one will be in this plan, and then probably some dollars as it relates to long lead time equipment for that 2033. You may start to see a little bit tweak in on that last $500 in this plan.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Great. Great. Then maybe if I could, just one more. The GRC, just given, all that’s been kind of in front of you, and you had a, you know, successful VLC with this commission, we’re still very early innings of this case, but is this something that you expect to go fully litigated, or do you think there could be an opportunity to settle depending on where the starting points of testimony are?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. As you look at it. Remember, we filed the case at the beginning of April. I think we have a real, a modest increase out there on our base rates in the electric side of 4.7 and 4.5% in each of the in 2027 and 2028. You know, we don’t even have a procedural schedule out, but I think we’ll get through the staff audit sometime this summer. When we see that audit in probably the first round of testimony, that’ll be an opportunity for us to take a step and see if there’s an opportunity to settle. You know, this last year, this commission did settle cases with a couple other utilities in the state.

Optimistic that, you know, we’re going to have a reasonable audit and then, you know, we can make progress later in the year, but a little early before we can make any decisions on that.

Nicholas Campanella, Analyst, Barclays: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Hey, good afternoon, team. Thank you guys very much. Appreciate the time. Nicely done again. I got to hand it to you on the ICC backdrop here with the QIP resolution.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Excellent. Thanks, Julien.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Yeah, absolutely. Hey, just a couple of things if I can come back to it. The VLC tariff, with that approved here, at least verbally, are you having other discussions with other data developers? I know this was asked a little bit earlier in a different permutation, how is this enabling or catalyzing developments? Can you speak to, you know, the expansion opportunity a little bit more specifically? Again, just if I can link this to another subject, how do you think about Point Beach enabling data centers as well? I just want to ask that explicitly here, if I can.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. Sure. Well, the VLC and when we see the final order, I think that’s just gonna be a lot more transparency for everyone. We wanted to make sure we filed a VLC as a tariff to make sure it’s transparent, not only for other VLC customers, but also for the public and the community to see that they’re paying their full share. You know, very happy about that. It’s, you know, it’s good. I think all the people we’ve been talking to are well aware of what the VLC filing was and what the tariff and the discussion from the commission. A lot of people are watching that decision to see what was going on on that. As you think about, you know, Point Beach, you know, there’s, you know, that’s in 2030, 2033. We’ll see what opportunities are there.

Potentially right now we’re looking at it, how do we serve our native load and actually provide a capital investment and probably some bill headroom as you think about affordability in that 2030 and 2033 timeframe.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. I hear you here. Just to ask it explicitly, I know it was brought up a little bit earlier, but given this rate case, I mean, it seems fairly benign in many respects, my words. How do you think about settlement and any specific items that might stand out here in the filing, right? I mean, mid-single digit increase, I mean, it seems fairly down the fairway.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: You know, it’s too early. We want to see what the final audit is. When you think about our rate case filing, it’s really balanced. You know, there’s a little bit of new generation, there’s a little bit of transmission, there’s a little bit of reliability that we put in on the distribution system, some general inflation, some truing up for sales. It’s sprinkled throughout, so it’s not like we’re having any one big initiative here. Remember, when we filed our case now, we laid out that those very large customers are paying a significant amount of our capital additions that we’re putting into our plan. You’re not seeing it come through to these individual non-VLC customers. It’s all being paid for by the large customers. Too early to talk about that.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Excellent, guys.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith, Analyst, Jefferies: I totally get it. Cheers.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Cheers.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Andrew, your line is open. Your next question comes from the line of Sophie Karp with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Sophie Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: Hi. Good morning. Good afternoon, rather. Thank you for taking my question.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure.

Sophie Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: I wanted to ask you guys, yeah, not to beat this horse to death, but I wanted to ask about Point Beach, and it sounds like, since you’re thinking about replacing that power that you’re contemplating a scenario where it won’t be available to serve your retail customers.

Can you give us some reminder of what other options the owners of this asset would even have under Wisconsin law? Which, I don’t think they’re able to sell it through retail directly themselves to, what kind of an outcome is actually contemplated here with respect to Point Beach?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah. Even, you know, I can’t speak for NextEra, you’d have to ask them that question.

You know, they could always enter into a financial transaction or something like that. You’ll have to run that by NextEra and see what their thoughts are.

Sophie Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: All right. I guess on the VLC, what kind of a feedback, if any, have you heard so far from the existing hyperscale customers and potential others, just given the modifications that were made at the commission?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah. We’ve been talking, and you could kind of see it through the testimony.

adjustments would be made. The initial indication is, you know, there’s nothing major right now. Of course, we all want to see the written order.

to see what’s really in that final written order. Nothing surprising at this time.

Sophie Karp, Analyst, KeyBanc: All right. Thank you.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Hi. Let’s try it again. Can you hear me now?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yep, we can hear you.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Okay. Terrific. I don’t know what happened there, but thanks for giving it a second try. Okay. I first wanna ask, another the Port Washington situation. My question is, to what degree do you see the referendum on data centers, they’re either challenging the current 1.3 gigawatt build-up? Do you see that at all being at risk, or do you think it might make it harder for the customers to expand to the full 3.5 gigawatts? You know, could this potentially defer other customers from looking into opportunities in or around that area or across Wisconsin more broadly?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Well, I think you’re referring to the referendum related to the TIF district. You know, when you look at that, it should not affect any of that site up to the 3.5 gigawatts based on all of our understanding. It potentially could affect not just data centers, but any other just economic development in an area that would need a TIF district for that particular county. More of a challenge just in general for economic development, but it should not affect any of the data center growth we had outlined in our script.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Okay. It will not only the 1.3, but the full 3.5 you think would be safe. Okay, great.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Right.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Do you think it’s isolated to that specific area? Do you think From your conversation with customers, do you think it’s isolated or do you think it’s more of a broad issue in your conversations?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: I You know, we haven’t seen any other issues out there as it relates to like a referendum. We have seen a couple areas across the state just put like a one year moratorium on reviewing data centers just because I think everyone wants to understand a little bit more of the facts on the data centers to get the facts out. I have not seen any other type of referendum like that.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Great. Thank you. Very helpful. Just a minor one maybe for Xia. The weather-adjusted natural gas deliveries were down 2.1% year-on-year. I know the weather was extremely mild. That always messes with the normalization models. Volumes were also down 0.5% for the full year in 2025. What are you seeing in terms of trends or patterns? Anything worth calling out, or was the 1Q maybe just a blip with the models?

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs0: Yeah, Andrew, we looked at that. I think we expected some usage decline in the forecast. What played out was a little worse than what we expected, but by not much. We filed in the test year 2027/2028 the expected decline in the filing, hopefully we catch it up for the future. There’s some details about in which metropolitan area you see a little more decline, as people continue to come back to the office or reduce their residential usage, you may see that naturally happen in the metropolitan area. Nothing surprising in the 1st quarter.

Andrew Weisel, Analyst, Scotiabank: Very good. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Sullivan with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Hey, good afternoon.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Good afternoon, Michael.

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Yeah. Hey, Scott. Maybe I’ll just try in Illinois, and this might be unfair because we’re about to get the testimony. Is there any scenario where you think you can settle in that jurisdiction and maybe just longer term, like how you think about the future of rate case cadence in that state?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. Sure. You’re right. We haven’t even seen the testimony yet, pretty hard to handicap anything there. Historically, Illinois has been a hard place to actually settle, when you look across for other jurisdictions. You know, I don’t know about the opportunities there, we got to see the testimony. Very happy, as you could see, we actually got a settlement on those old historical riders. That’s a step in the right direction. Your second question was?

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Just like the future of rate case cadence.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: It’s like, is this gonna be?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: like every year, every other year? How do you think about that?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah. I anticipate, especially as we ramp up this rider and we start getting increases in 2027, 2028 and then an ongoing, I expect that it’ll be more of an annual rate case kind of cadence as you think of Illinois, specifically as it relates to putting in this pipe retirement program.

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Okay. Very helpful. We saw you I think you mentioned pushing out the retirement dates on some of your coal units. Just as you think about your remaining coal fleet holistically, what are kind of some of the options that like in terms of conversions, further push-outs, how you’re thinking about some of those remaining units holistically?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure, sure. We’re going to look at, you know, conversion of those, the natural gas. For the most part, as you think about the EPA rules, we need to be in compliance with the current EPA rules. We’ll see where those EPA rules go. At this time, the reason we pushed out 7 and 8, we just wanted to make sure we get other dispatchable generation online, and those Paris RICE plant and the new CTs will start to come online at the end of 2027. We wanted to make sure we had, you know, as we retire old dispatchable capacity, we had new capacity online. We also reviewed this to make sure there was no significant capital investments we had to make to keep these units running another year.

Basically, they’re only running on days that we really need it, so we’re really running it on a limited basis, but we just wanna make sure we have that capacity around to make sure we had that reliability. As you look at the other units, we’re still looking at converting to natural gas and we’ll follow the EPA rules as they evolve.

Michael Sullivan, Analyst, Wolfe Research: Great. Very helpful. Thank you.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Carly Davenport with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Just one for me. Just wanted to check in kind of on, I know you’ve talked about the construction activity at the Vantage site has sort of started. Just any color you could provide on how execution is kind of tracking there relative to the timeline, I think end of 2027 that the company’s laid out? Perhaps just if you do see any slippage there, can you refresh us kind of on the protections in place on if timing slips there related to the investments that WEC is making?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Sure. We don’t see any slippage, and we’re in contact with the site. We have, like, a meeting every other week with them on the site. We don’t see any slippage there. The other significant item is approval of a transmission line to serve that site, which there is data request and information going around at the commission right now. We expect to get approval for that in the fall of this year. We don’t think there’s any issues in the slippage of that in-service at this time. Things are going well there.

As you think about in-service, you know, some of the fixes, and fine-tuning that happened in the VLC tariff as it relates to transmission will be more on a nominated basis, which will make sure that everyone pays their fair share, and full cost as we build this cost and put that in, so it’s not getting subsidized by anyone else, and it should not be a slippage also for any of our generation plans. We feel good about the tariff and the protection plus. More importantly, we feel really good about the execution of that site and getting it online.

Carly Davenport, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: That’s great. I’ll leave it there. Thank you for the color.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Thank you.

Operator: Your final question comes from the line of Paul Fremont with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please go ahead.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: Thanks. Thanks for taking my question. When I look at the $2 billion-$2.5 billion per 1 gigawatt in terms of replacement capacity, should I assume that what you’re looking at is a combination of renewables and gas for Point Beach?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Yeah. I think you gotta think about all of the above as we think. We’ll look at our entire generation plan. It may be a combination of renewables and CTs. We also may be looking at a combined cycle as we look at our plan to continue to get more energy, since it also provides a lot of energy. We’re going through that process. We look at it every year, not just as it relates to, like, the Point Beach, but also adding additional load on for our very large customers or other economic development in the region. We’re going through that process right now on what makes sense and cost-effective value for our customers.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: Great. In terms of the non-regulated renewables, I imagine you’re getting to a point where you’re reaching sort of the end of the PTCs on some of the units. For those units, what type of uplift, if any, are you seeing in recontracting those assets? Should we assume that that offsets the PTC, or how should we think about that?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: Great question. Two things. One is we’re going through the process right now. In fact, last year, we had safe harbored a lot of the materials to make sure those early PTCs that fall off, we have safe harbored materials, so we could actually repower them to get to another 10 years of PTCs. We’re evaluating that right now, and we’ll talk about that on our third quarter conference call. An opportunity to get another 10 years of PTCs. As those contracts come up, you know, the value of renewable resources today and a capacity across the country, it’s more valuable than when we initially contracted those. I also see some upside as those contracts come due.

Now, just so you’re reminded, they don’t all come due at the same time as the PTCs, so there’s a different timing there. I think there’s value in both sides of it.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: Great. I guess last question that I have is it the Microsoft Mount Pleasant data center, was that to be located near where the Oak Creek plant is located? Or was that in a different vicinity?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: There was a potential option to purchase some land by the Oak Creek plant for a potential Microsoft expansion that is no longer moving forward.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: Right

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: since, I mean, in total, they still have about 2,200 acres, and that was by the Oak Creek site.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: I guess my question, has there been any reconsideration by that community of potential benefits for having a data center located in their community?

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: I haven’t talked specifically with them, but I think every community is looking at, you know, potential for data centers or the discussion of data centers ’cause there’s a lot of discussion in the region. I think a lot of these communities are looking at, like, Port Washington and Mount Pleasant, looking at the value of property taxes and the other value these hyperscalers bring to the community, especially when you talk about affordability and people talking about property taxes. I think there’s opportunities there. We haven’t had direct discussions with them, but, you know, there’s potential there. I think it’s a great site. It requires very little transmission, and it’s right by our power plant, so it’s a great power supply with very little transmission. an ideal spot for something like that.

Paul Fremont, Analyst, Ladenburg Thalmann: Great. That’s it for me. Thank you so much.

Scott Lauber, President and Chief Executive Officer, WEC Energy Group: All right. That concludes our conference call for today. Thank you for participating. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact Beth Straka at 414-221-4639. Thanks, everyone.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.