Wisconsin is faced with two directions for its energy policy during a moment when unprecedented data center growth is reshaping the country's electricity system. One direction, titled the "Expansion Package," doubles funding for the state's energy efficiency program. The other direction, titled the "Rollback Package," eliminates funding for that same efficiency program and restricts new wind and solar buildout in favor of fossil fuel generation. This study models the household affordability impacts of each package through 2040.

Results show that the Expansion Package reduces household energy costs, while the Rollback Package increases them. Taken together, the difference between the two policy directions amounts to $10.2 billion in cumulative household energy costs from 2027 through 2040, which equals over $4,000 for the average Wisconsin household.

These results were produced with a stack of modeling tools, including GenX, an open-source electricity system capacity expansion model developed at MIT and Princeton University, configured with Rhodium Group data center load projections; Focus on Energy's independently evaluated program results for the efficiency policies; and Greenline's WI-AFFORD model, which traces both direct bill impacts and the indirect pass-through of business energy costs to household budgets.