With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

<p>Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group is a leading U.S. utility company providing regulated electricity and natural gas, as well as renewable and nonregulated energy services through subsidiaries across Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota. The company operates a diverse generation portfolio including coal, natural gas, nuclear, oil, wind, solar, hydroelectric, and biomass. It is actively investing in renewable energy and grid modernization, with plans to invest $9.1 billion through 2029 to expand solar, wind, and energy storage capacity. WEC Infrastructure owns a fleet of renewable generation facilities in states from South Dakota to Texas. WEC was founded as the Wisconsin Energy Corp. in 1896.&nbsp;</p>

Industries included in the sector are mining, oil and gas exploration and services, pipelines, refining, and utilities.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Energy

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

The energy company primarily serves its home state of Wisconsin and neighboring states, with over 4 million electric and gas customers in all.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-416-WEC-Energy-Group

A natural gas and electricity supplier, WEC provides energy to 4.5 million people in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Earnings Per Share (last Fiscal Year)

Earnings Per Share ($)

EPS % Change (from prior fiscal year)

EPS % Change (5 year annual rate)

EPS % Change (10 year annual rate)

Total Return

Total Return to Investors (last year)

Total Return to Investors (5 year, annualized)

Total Return to Investors (10 year, annualized)

Q3 2026

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

Get insights into WEC Energy Group including business profile, stock information, news, and rankings from Fortune.

WEC Energy Group (WEC): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

WEC Energy Group

wec energy group

Good afternoon, and welcome to WEC Energy Group's conference call for the third 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 risk and uncertainties that are subject to change at any time. Such statements are based on management's expectation at the time 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, Chairman, CEO, and President of WEC Energy Group.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we review our results for the third 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 in our news release this morning, we reported third quarter 2026 earnings of $1.18 per share, compared to $0.83 per share in the third quarter last year. These results were driven by warmer than normal weather, execution of our capital plan, and operating efficiency. With another solid quarter, we remain on track to deliver strong results for 2026. Our continued focus on the fundamentals of our business is creating value for our customers and stockholders. Today, we're raising and narrowing our earnings guidance for 2026 to a range of $5.60 to $5.64 per share, assuming normal weather for the remainder of the year.

This reflects 7.7% growth in earnings per share from our 2025 adjusted guidance midpoint. As a reminder, our previous guidance was in the range of $5.51 to $5.61 per share. I'm also pleased to share our new five-year capital plan. Let's start by talking about the economic growth that's driving it. Overall, we expect our electric demand to grow 4.9 gigawatts between 2026 and 2031, an increase of 1 gigawatt compared to the prior plan. Microsoft continues to make good progress on its large data center complex in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. With the first facility operating, construction is underway on additional facilities as Microsoft expands at the site. As a reminder, Microsoft has purchased more than 2,200 acres to date in the I-94 corridor south of Milwaukee. Just last week, Microsoft announced the purchase of an additional 70 acres next to the site.

We are preparing to serve forecasted demand of 3.2 gigawatts in the I-94 region through 2031, with opportunity for further expansion. That is up 600 megawatts from the previous plan. You will notice an additional 400 megawatts in the new capital plan. We are making good progress with another customer, and you can expect more details in the future. Stay tuned. To the north of Milwaukee, you will recall that Vantage Data Centers is developing facilities for Oracle on approximately 1,900 acres. Construction continues on the initial phase of the data center project, which is being built on 670 acres. Vantage has stated that it expects to invest $15 billion to complete this phase in 2028. We currently have 1.3 gigawatts of demand for this Vantage site in our forecast through 2031. Looking to the future, it has the potential to reach 3.5 gigawatts of demand over time.

The project is well on its way, and Oracle has met its financial security obligations, which are consistent with the Wisconsin Commission's very large customer tariff requirements. To serve this project, ATC has refiled a proposal with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. In addition to the transmission line, this filing includes proposed investment in an eSTATCOM system to maintain grid reliability. ATC is working through the process now with the commission. As a reminder, both Microsoft and Oracle have committed to paying their full share for energy costs. We solidified this through our very large customer tariff, which protects other customers. Microsoft, Vantage, and Oracle have made significant investments to support our communities. Just recently, we worked with Oracle to save our customers an estimated $300 million in fuel costs. Oracle agreed to subscribe to a portion of the energy we purchase from Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant.

We expect the full details to be submitted to the Wisconsin Commission in the coming months. As we work with these hyperscalers, we are confident our very large customer tariff provides a strong framework for growth while maintaining affordable energy service for all our customers. We continue to see local growth in small, commercial, and large businesses as well. For example, both Generac and Modine are expanding and adding jobs. We have designed our new capital plan to reliably serve our customers while supporting the significant growth we continue to see across our service areas. As you may have seen from our announcement this morning, we expect to invest $47.5 billion in capital projects between 2027 and 2031. This is an increase of $10 billion, or more than 26% above our previous five-year plan.

The majority of this increase is being driven and therefore paid for by our very large customers. The updated plan is expected to support asset-based growth at a 13.4% compound annual growth rate. This should drive compound annual earnings per share growth of 7% to 9+% from 2027 to 2031. This is based off the midpoint of our original 2026 guidance. The increase in our plan is mostly driven by investments in regulated electric generation and transmission, largely due to very large customer demand. Let me give you a few more details. Over the next five years, we will continue to take an all-of-the-above approach for generation to support economic growth and reliability by investing in new natural gas, batteries, and renewables. Dispatchable generation is a key component of our reliability strategy.

Between 2027 and 2031, we expect to invest an incremental $6.8 billion in modern, efficient natural gas generation versus the prior plan. This includes a combined cycle turbine project that we expect to come online by the end of the five-year forecast period, as well as combustion turbines and upgrade to our existing facilities. We are increasing planned investment in renewable generation and battery storage by $1.1 billion, with the total planned battery storage increased by $3 billion, while planned solar and wind investment decreased by $1.9 billion. Some of this decrease relates to the work already completed in 2026. Continuing our all-of-the-above approach, we also reached an agreement with NextEra that pending regulatory approval, we will support long-term electric reliability and customer savings. We plan to extend our purchase power agreement for approximately 1,000 megawatts of carbon-free base load capacity from the Point Beach nuclear plant.

The new PPA would extend the existing agreement by 20 years. Outside of generation, American Transmission Company plans to continue investing in transmission capabilities to serve our region's economic growth, connecting new facilities and strengthening the system. Our plan calls for us to invest approximately $5.3 billion in ATC projects between 2027 and 2031. This represents a $1.2 billion increase from the previous plan. Adding to strength and reliability and support economic growth, we continue to invest in our electric and natural gas distribution networks. Our plan includes an additional $1 billion to improve distribution infrastructure. This supports the continuing investment in our pipe retirement program in Chicago. Recall, the Illinois Commerce Commission directed us to focus on retiring more than 1,000 miles of older pipe by January 1, 2035. Turning to the regulatory front, I have a couple of updates across our service area.

In Wisconsin, progress continues on the rate request we filed in April for forward-looking test years 2027 and 2028. The procedural calendar has now been completed. We expect final orders from the commission by the end of the year, with new rates effective in January 2027 and 2028. We also have rate filings under review in Illinois for test years 2027 at Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas. Recently, the administrative law judge issued a proposed order that is largely consistent with the staff's recommendation. The order recommends a 9.48% ROE and a 50% equity ratio at both utilities. We expect a final decision in December. Of course, we will keep you updated on future developments. In summary, we are excited about the strong economic development in our region, and we believe our capital plan, along with our very large customer tariff, positions us well to support that growth.

I will turn it over to Xia for more details.

Thank you, Scott. Our third quarter 2026 earnings of $1.18 per share reflects a $0.35 increase compared to the third quarter of 2025. Our earnings packet includes a comparison of third quarter results on page 15. I will walk through the significant drivers. Starting with our utility operations, earnings were $0.28 higher versus the third quarter of 2025. Let me highlight a couple of factors. Weather favorably impacted quarter-over-quarter earnings by approximately $0.05. Compared to normal conditions, we estimate that weather had an $0.08 positive impact in the third quarter of 2026, compared to a $0.03 positive impact in the third quarter of 2025. Rate-based growth contributed $0.19 to earnings. This includes $0.15 of growth from incremental AFUDC equity and cash returns associated with projects under construction. I will note that $0.12, or 80% of these incremental returns, are from projects for and supported by the VLCs.

In addition, VLCs added $0.02 of margin quarter over quarter. Favorable day-to-day O&M drove an $0.08 variance. This was primarily driven by our stock-based plan, which could be timing. These positive drivers were partially offset by higher depreciation and amortization expense, higher interest expense, and tax and other items. Next, let me provide some additional color on our weather normal retail electric deliveries. Compared to Q3 last year, total weather normal retail electric sales grew 4.1%, driven by growth from the VLCs. Excluding the iron ore mine and VLC customers, we saw sales grow 0.4% during the quarter. For the year, we continue to expect weather normalized electric sales to be relatively flat with 2025. At American Transmission Company, capital investment growth contributed an incremental $0.03 to Q3 earnings compared to 2025.

At our energy infrastructure segment, earnings were $0.02 higher in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2025. This was driven by additional capital investment at W.E. Power and a better operating income at WECI. Lastly, you will see that earnings from the corporate and other segment increased $0.04, driven primarily by tax timing. In terms of common equity, we locked in about $1.16 billion during the first nine months of the year. This includes $50 million issued under our dividend reinvestment and employee benefit plans. The remaining $1.1 billion are under the ATM program, which includes approximately $350 million from forward contracts that have been settled and $765 million still under forward contracts that will be settled in the future.

As Scott noted, we are raising and narrowing our 2026 earnings guidance range to $5.60-$5.64 per share, assuming normal weather for the rest of the year. Going forward with the updated capital plan as Scott discussed earlier, we expect our long-term EPS growth to increase. Again, based off the midpoint of the original 2026 guidance range, $5.56 per share, our long-term EPS CAGR is expected to be 7%-9+% through 2031. Now, let me comment on the financing plan that supports this growth and the new capital plan. Slide 22 of the earnings package outlines the funding sources. Over the next five years, we expect to generate $26 billion-$27 billion in cash from operations, funding more than half of our cash needs.

We expect $19 billion to come from incremental debt, including hybrid instruments, and we plan to fund the remaining cash needs with $5 billion to $5.5 billion of common equity. Although our current capital plan increased $10 billion, we expect common equity needs to remain relatively flat with the prior plan. This is largely due to incremental cash from operations in the new plan. As projects are completed and placed in service in the planning horizon, they begin generating cash revenues. Many of which are supported by the VLCs that comes with a 10.48%-10.98% ROE. The new plan also includes more projects for which the VLCs are expected to provide cash returns during construction rather than AFUDC. The additional cash from operations helps us keep common equity needs at a modest 10% of total cash sources and relatively flat compared with the prior plan.

In closing, as Scott discussed previously, strong economic development and load growth in Wisconsin are the foundation of our new capital plan. As illustrated on page 21 of the earnings package, over the next five years, we expect to transform our business while staying true to our fundamentals. Our asset base is expected to more than double over the next five years, with the electric business representing 80% of the asset base by 2031. Furthermore, with almost half of the capital plan, or more than $20 billion allocated to the VLCs. The asset base dedicated to these customers is projected to represent almost 30% of our total assets by 2031. As you know, these assets are supported by the VLC tariff, which is designed to ensure that these large customers pay their full share of the costs and are not subsidized by other customers.

In addition, the tariff provides very strong financial security and credit support requirements. We are excited about our company's future and the investment opportunities ahead. With that, I will turn it back to Scott.

Thank you, Xia. Finally, a quick reminder about the dividend. As usual, I expect we will provide our 2027 dividend plan and earnings guidance in December. We expect to grow the dividend at a rate of 6.5%-7%, consistent with our past practice. This results in a projected payout ratio of 60%-70% due to the forecasted earnings per share growing at a faster pace. Before I open it up for Q&A, I want to summarize some of the key highlights of the call. Economic growth is driving another gigawatt of forecasted demand for a total 4.9 gigawatts of growth in our plan. This growth is adding $10 billion to our five-year capital plan, which is now at $47.5 billion. These developments give us confidence in our EPS compound annual growth rate of 7%-9+%. We remain committed to 6.5%-7% dividend growth.

We expect the total equity funding to be flat in our five-year plan versus the prior plan at approximately $5.5 billion, maintaining a strong balance sheet. Overall, we're optimistic about our five-year plan and the longer-term outlook. We'll look forward to discussing our plan at the EEI conference. Operator, we're now ready for the question-and-answer portion of the call.

Now we will take your questions. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. To ask a question, please press the star key followed by the digit one on your phone. If you are using a speakerphone, turn off your mute function to allow your signal to reach our equipment. We will take as many questions as time permits. Once again, please press star and then one on your telephone keypad to ask a question. The first question is from the line of Shar Pourreza with Wells Fargo. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

I'm doing all right. Big congrats. This print was pretty amazing, and you made Beth's job a lot easier. Just on the updated guidance, obviously you now see 7%-9%+. Just help us frame what is assumed in the plus. That's always the question mark you get when you come out with a plus. The $10 billion is included in the range. But just help us frame the plus, and honestly, why even keep the 7%-8% at this point?

Sure. It's a great question. As we look at it, and we look at the capital projects we have, and you saw our growth of another gigawatt, we felt really confident with that 7%-9% range and feel confident not only in this five-year plan, that we think it'll continue. The second part is, when you think about the plus, you really got to look at the pattern of our growth of our capital plan that's illustrated in our handout. There's a lot of projects that need regulatory approval, but if there's an opportunity that we can get the approvals and move faster than we anticipate, there's an opportunity that the growth may be a little faster in a couple of years, maybe like in 2028 or 2029.

Really depends on a lot of stuff, but I think there's an opportunity as we continue to execute on plan for potential upside in some of those years.

Got it. No, that's perfect. That's what I was trying to get into. That's perfect. Scott, switching to Oracle, the ATC line project to serve the Vantage site is in its second application filing. It appears the filing is still under review with the commission. I guess, what's the timeline there, and do you see a potential delay to the start of the project, or can the site start taking the megawatts before the line is completed? Thanks.

Great question. They are still working feverishly on the construction. Listening to the Oracle conference call the last quarter, I do not think it is going to delay any of their projects in the timeline. We expect we will get a completeness here, and it will get approval, and we will be right back on schedule. Just to put it in perspective, remember, this filing is a big filing. In addition, we just added the eSTATCOM to the filing to make sure we have true transparency. When you think about it, there is over 20,000 pages in the filing. The commission having 35 questions, I think that is pretty reasonable. It is really a complete filing, and understand, we want them to ask those questions upfront and work it through so we can get a quick result here. Everything is on schedule here.

Although we had a little pause with that refiling, I feel good where we are at.

Perfect. Appreciate it, guys. Really big congrats, and it is quite a report. See you in a couple of weeks.

Your next question is from the line of Nicholas Campanella with Barclays. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for the updates. I just wanted to ask, you are raising the capital plan pretty significantly, and this is for about 1 gigawatt of incremental load in the forecast period. You also talked about progress with another customer. You also talked about the fact that Microsoft and Oracle could be expanding. Does this capital plan build into that load, or would those expansions result in incremental capital?

Sure. When you look at it, if there would be potential expansions, we factored in the 400 megawatts on this to be announced, and we are making progress on that customer there. But we do have some long lead time equipment in here, anticipating we will have some spending done, but those megawatts probably will not come in until like that 2032, 2033. But true transparency, we think this growth will extend beyond 2031, and opportunities in 2032 and 2033. So we have a little bit of long lead time equipment, as you can see in some of the public filings of plants being filed. So more to come on that. So I think as we grow, there will be continued to be upside if there is additional data center growth beyond 2031.

Okay. Thank you. Then just with the plan being out to 2031 now, you talked about the long lead time equipment. You still have some chunky generation you are probably going to be building in 2032. You also have some load ramping by then. How do equity needs look like kind of beyond this plan? Is there something idiosyncratic that is causing you to basically have flat to declining needs on the CapEx raise? Or is this type of CapEx increase to equity needs sustainable on a roll forward? If you understand my point. Thanks.

Yeah. That's a great question. I'll start and then Xia will clean up as we're in the Brewer fever here. When you think about it, we really worked hard getting more cash up front and getting some cash returns with some of our very large customers. As we always said, having plants go into service was also going to help with our cash. This was kind of a step change to get into that, realign our cash needs and working with our very large customers who have been great partners here. As we go forward, though, Xia has looked at what additional capital would mean and potential there.

Yeah. Just to build on that, we think that we traditionally guided you that every $1 million of incremental capital, we would require 50 cents with equity content. With the factors that Scott just outlined, we expect that number to come down over time. I would be comfortable to say it could be around 40%. Every incremental dollar would come with 40% of equity content comfortably. That would be the going forward guidance for you, Nick.

If I could just squeeze one more in, just in response to kind of Xia's question before. On the plus, is it really with the capital plan essentially peaking here in 2028? Is it 2029 and beyond that you'd really be in that plus range if things go correctly? We're just trying to make sure we heard that right. I'm sorry.

Sure. I think it all depends upon when we can get some regulatory approvals, potentially 2028, more likely 2029. As we continue, you can see our capital plan actually falls down a little bit in 2030 and 2031. I wouldn't read too much into that, because as we look at 2032, et cetera, there'll be more opportunities there. So, I feel the most confident in that 2028, 2029 timeframe. But 2030 and 2031 aren't that far off, so we have some time here to look at those also.

Your next question is from the line of Steve D'Ambrisi with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, Scott and Xia. Thanks very much for taking my question, and good afternoon.

Just had a couple quick ones. Just in terms of Microsoft and this 600 megawatt expansion to 3.2-ish gigawatts of load. Can you just talk maybe at a high level about how much of the acreage that relates to? Or they keep adding acreage, but it also seems like power density per acre is moving up with newer generations of racks. Just how we can think about, you've given a good estimate of what Vantage Data Centers could potentially size to, but just interested about Microsoft on the other side.

Sure. Microsoft hasn't disclosed anything in particular. This is more us just looking at other comparable sites. I think those sites, and they've talked about, you just saw them buying another 70 acres right next door. I think the opportunity for these sites to have another, not another, but in total, 4.5-5 gigawatts. So right now, southeastern Wisconsin is about 3.2. Potentially, that could get up to 4.5-5. As you see, they just bought some more land. So I agree with you. I think the technology continues to get more capacity on the same location. More to come on that, but those are just our kind of rough estimates. But right now we're very comfortable with the 3.2 that's in the plan for southeastern Wisconsin.

Then just obviously more to come, I guess, on the 400 megawatts, but can you talk about whether it's within WEPCO or WPS, the service territory, or any color on just what that could look like? Understand that we'll get more details soon.

Yeah. We will get more details, too. I know people are looking at locations in both territories. So once again, you got to make sure you have a community that is excited about it and interested in it. You got to make sure the transmission lines are available and the capacity. So there is a lot of factors going in, so I do not want to really get much more there. More to come on this, though.

Totally appreciate it. Thanks very much, Scott.

Your next question is from the line of Michael Sullivan with Wolfe Research. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon. I got to try one more. Hey, Scott. I got to try one more on the growth rate. Is the takeaway here that the plus as it stands now is for one, maybe two years, and then you're back within more the 7% to 9% in all the other years?

I feel good that we're going to get a couple of years out of here, but once again, we'll have another update in a year here on our capital plan or maybe interim as we get more customers here. It's a little too early to tell, but feel really good that it'll be into that 9% plus, probably the upper end or a plus sign based on where we're currently at.

Okay, and on the equity piece, can you just maybe unpack a little more about what changed here for the nearer term that you were able to. Because you really have two large customers, and so I guess there was a negotiation with one or both that brought the needs down, and then why that wouldn't sustain if you expand with those same customers out in future years?

Yeah, Michael, I'll take that one. Remember, the tariff allows us to recognize AFUDC or current returns. We have the options there. We've been assuming conservatively before that most of the projects would come with AFUDC. In this plan, to your point, we've been working with our VLC customers to try to charge more cash returns. As a result, you're basically reducing the AFUDC originally assumed in the prior plan and increasing cash returns in this plan. It's kind of like Scott mentioned, it's a step change. That's why it's a relative equity, even though we have added $10 billion. Going forward, you wouldn't be doing this unwinding AFUDC and adding cash return thing, but we will continue to encourage the customers to pay cash returns. Incrementally, you would need a little more equity as a result.

It does. Thank you. The last thing just for me, the 400 megawatts, is that all with one customer? Just any detail on the gating items there.

Sure. Right now it's anticipated to be all with one customer. More to come on this. They're still working with the different communities on this. So it's anticipated to be with one customer, but more to come.

Your next question is from the line of Andrew Weisel with Scotiabank. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Congrats to the Brewers. Not a lot of love there, but quite a weather series. Congrats to the Brewers, and congrats to you guys. They are not the only ones winning in Milwaukee. Great updates.

Thank you. The Brewers have been exciting and fun to watch, and glad to bring a weather series home. That is great.

My first question is on the sales growth. You added a gigawatt to the outlook there, and yet the forecast still shows 6%-8%. Why wouldn't that be increasing the 6%-8%? I understand there's the roll forward, but why didn't that number come up? Can you talk a little bit about why the pace of gas growth came down a little bit from the prior forecast? This is all in Wisconsin, I believe, not Illinois. Could you please talk to those two numbers?

Sure. Happy to. On the first one, remember, we continue to add sales along the way between now and 2029. When you look at 2029 to 2031, the base is very high. When you grow from a very high base, you continue to have a 6%-8%. It's really just a timing of the growth rate. On the gas sales side, nothing to read too much into it. We forecasted a pretty flat gas sales this year. We, through the three quarters, remember, we had a mild quarter in the first quarter, and the next two quarters were really not gas-focused. Our normalization process is never perfect, so there was a little bit of that in there. But we don't see any trend in the gas sales side to make us question the growth rate. Just don't read too much into it.

Yeah. Remember, on the electric side, the very large customers are really. Remember the way our tariff is set up? The very large customers, you've got to really look at the returns on the assets versus the volume metric. The volume metric does make a difference, but a lot of that volume metric is completely passed through as it relates to energy prices, et cetera. It's really the return on those assets is where the earnings come from.

Great. That makes a lot of sense on the electric side. Sorry, Xia, for gas, I was talking about the 29%-31% outlook. You're now saying 0.5%-0.8%. You previously said 0.7%-0.1%. Is it the same story about the 28% or 29%?

Yeah. It is still in that neighborhood. As I said, from last year to this year, we are expecting that to be even. So growing from that, we feel good about the 0.5%-0.8%. It could be better than that.

Yeah. I think we are just making sure we factor in conservation, where the price of gas may go, factoring in what could happen. Usually, use per customer continues to go down a little bit. This is largely driven by customer growth. So I am not too concerned about it. And remember, on those gas sales, we will factor all that into future rate cases as we look at it.

Right. Good point. That is a full rate case cycle away. Okay, one more on equity, if I may. How should we think about the timing of this? Your commentary on the magnitude and the customers was pretty clear. But given all that, how should we think about the timing of when the equity would be drawn down and common equity versus JSNs within this cycle? Should it be ratable, or would it be more back-end loaded within the five-year plan?

We always say that equity goes with capital. It could be a little bit front-end loaded because we are still in the construction phase in the front end of the planning horizon. Again, as we continue to place the projects in service, you have more cash coming in in the latter part of the plan. Overall, it is a little bit front-end loaded on equity.

Okay. Thank you very much. That is helpful.

Your next question is from the line of Anthony Crowdell with Mizuho. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good afternoon. I reiterate Andrew's comments. Congrats on the weather series. Must be nice. I wanted to follow up one of Stevie D's questions earlier on Microsoft and Oracle. Steve was kind of talking on the Microsoft angle. I guess my question is, between Microsoft and Oracle or Vantage, which customer has the greatest potential to exceed the load currently in your plan right now, and what would trigger that?

Sure. That's hard. They're both building extremely fast. They both have their construction sites under construction extremely fast here. I think when you look at it, probably Microsoft has a lot more individual construction sites going. Oracle's really concentrated on that first 670 acres, really concentrated on that first 1.3 gigawatts. As you notice, we didn't increase anything in the plan here. They want to get that up and running, get that transmission line. I would say right now, potential Microsoft has a little more opportunity, especially as they continue to buy more land, if you think of our current five-year plan.

Great. Just one follow-up, I guess it's on, and I hope I have these numbers right, the customer concentration. I think by 2031, nearly 30% of your assets could be supporting very large customers. Is there a point maybe you become concerned with maybe customer concentration, or whether it's from a regulatory perspective or a credit perspective?

That's a great question, and we do get that question. Part of our comfort level going up to that 29%, 30% is the very large customer tariff we have with the strong financial requirements and the credits needed in those financial requirements, in addition to how people have to sign up for the length of those assets, so we don't have any stranded assets for our customers, our other customers or our investors. Having renewables, wind and solar sign up for 20 years, and the natural gas and batteries, the depreciable life matched with that credit support, I'm very comfortable having a concentration of the very large customers. Having two of them also helps having a little diversity with that group.

Great. That's all I had. See you guys in the EEI. Thanks again.

Your next question is from Brian Russo with Jefferies. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hey, Scott. Just to follow up on the cadence of the EPS growth, is it kind of following the same pattern as the prior 7% to 8% and kind of follows the capital plan on Slide 22? As the VLC generation investments ramp up, that requires, in theory, less equity because you're getting some upfront cash recovery from those customers. Is that how to think about it?

Yeah. I would really go with the pattern of the capital plan, I think. If we can do something and some more capital can come in a little earlier, I think there's opportunities to be in that plus section. I would look at the capital plan because that's a return on those assets. The equity is, as we've talked about, it's really a step change here to get more of that cash flow from our very large customers to stick to that balanced approach here. I think as you go forward, as we get more in service, the equity needs will continue to go lower.

Okay, understood. Could you be more specific on the actual construction time needed for that ATC line? I could see on the CapEx, it looks like majority might be in 2027 and 2028. Just with the incomplete CPCN filing and refiling, just want to make sure that there's adequate time, which is an already condensed timeline for construction.

Yeah. I do not have the exact timeline in my mind here. I imagine it is going to take 12 to 15 months. I have not fleshed that out completely, but I know American Transmission Company is ready. They have people working on other projects, so we are maintaining the workforce so that when this project does get approved, if we have the go ahead, we have the equipment is ready to go with the construction. As soon as we get approval, there will be no delay in starting. We will be able to keep moving. So it is probably about 12 to 15 months.

Okay, great. Then lastly, any insights into this DNR environmental review following the Port Washington settlement? It seems like it is not an obstacle for this new 400-megawatt customer. Just wondering what you are hearing or seeing on the ground related to that.

Yeah. So this environmental review, I do not see it as an obstacle at all. Actually, we welcome having a reasonable environmental review to get the facts out. So having a study, getting all the clarity on the facts on the environmental impact, I think is positive. Hopefully there is even clarity of what rules have to be filed for future environmental reviews so there is less interpretation. So we see this as net positive. It should not affect any of the current sites. I think everyone thinks it is going to be very manageable. We expect the environmental review to be on a reasonable basis. It sounds like it is going to be done very quickly by beginning of 2028. So I think all of that and having the facts out there and having the true on an environmental review is all net positive.

Your next question is from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Hi there. Good afternoon. This is Diana Niles on the call for Jeremy. Thank you for taking our questions today.

If you could elaborate more on the relatively unchanged equity in this plan, and maybe more broadly on the financing plan, puts and takes when considering the allocation of debt and equity under a higher rate environment. Would it be possible to speak to that and potentially speak to rate exposure?

Sure. Xia will look at how it's all laid out and some concepts here. But in reality, we look at it every day. We're going to do some financing. What's the most efficient? Xia, why don't you lay out some of our base concepts?

WEC Energy Group (WEC) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Company Participants