Madison Gas & Electric’s “Renewable Energy Rider” Ready for Action

Madison Gas & Electric’s “Renewable Energy Rider” Ready for Action

Madison Gas & Electric is now offering a first-in-Wisconsin opportunity for its business and institutional customers to access clean, renewable energy.

Called the “Renewable Energy Rider,” the program allows Madison Gas & Electric (MGE), a local investor-owned utility, to enter specific contracts with existing or new customers in which MGE will provide a dedicated renewable energy project to that customer.
This program follows a dramatic uptick in corporate and local government interest in renewable energy across America.  It enables these customers (more than 4,000 MGE customers in total are eligible) to directly pay for the sourcing of solar, wind, bioenergy, or other renewable energy on their electric bill, and to source that energy from additional and new projects if the customer desires.
RENEW Wisconsin has developed a two-page fact sheet for interested customers and stakeholders, as shown below and available for download:
The tariff is available in the last two pages of this MGE filing with the Public Service Commission.
RENEW Wisconsin is available to help any MGE customer business or non-residential customer take advantage of the program, and we are also encouraging other Wisconsin utilities to follow the lead and offer a similar program for their customers to directly access clean, renewable energy!
RENEW Urges PSC Approval of MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider

RENEW Urges PSC Approval of MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider

by Michael Vickerman, Program and Policy Director 

A proposal from Madison Gas & Electric to establish a renewable
electricity service for larger customers has garnered strong support from RENEW
Wisconsin as well as from the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group and individual
companies such as Target and Airgas. After introducing the Renewable Energy
Rider in its 2016 rate case, MGE submitted a revised version to the Public
Service Commission this year, which triggered comments from various
stakeholders.

In our comments, RENEW highlighted the growing number of companies
who desire a robust renewable energy service from utilities that serve their
facilities. Sixty-five of these companies adopted a set of principles to maximize the value of these purchases, both in terms of  achieving their internal sustainability goals
and locking in future cost savings.


As stated in our comments, “these
companies are increasingly deciding
where to locate their facilities based on whether the utility is willing and
able to provide them with significant levels of renewable energy. We believe
these tariffs offer an economic development opportunity in the service
territories where they exist, and we want Wisconsin to be a place where these
corporations prefer to locate.”

The Public Service
Commission will issue a final ruling on MGE’s Renewable Energy Rider in the
coming weeks.