New PSC Records Show Foundry Ridge Would Not Be Needed Without One Very Large Customer
Wisconsin Electric says the proposed gas plant is now 100% subscribed to one Very Large Customer. Other records show that utility-acquisition discussions and a customer financial commitment began before the merchant-plant application was filed—and a public-redacted agreement strongly points to Vantage Data Centers.
Research Update | July 22, 2026
By Darcey Rojas, Founder of Environmental Vigilance Alliance
With the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin’s written-comment period for the proposed Foundry Ridge Energy Center ending July 23, several records from Wisconsin Electric’s related acquisition proceeding require immediate public attention.
These records do more than associate Foundry Ridge with generalized regional growth or future data-center demand.
Wisconsin Electric has now stated directly that the proposed gas plant would not be needed for its generation portfolio without the incremental demand of one Very Large Customer.
The records also show that Wisconsin Electric had already been discussing acquisition of Foundry Ridge and had signed a financial agreement with that customer before Invenergy filed the project’s wholesale-merchant CPCN application.
A separate public-redacted agreement does not disclose the customer’s name in the signature block. However, it expressly identifies Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC as a party to the confidentiality agreement governing the transaction.
Together, these records substantially change the public understanding of what Foundry Ridge is, why it is being proposed, and whose demand is driving it.
Wisconsin Electric states that one Very Large Customer will subscribe to 100% of Foundry Ridge, that the project is needed for the customer’s load obligations, and that the resource would not otherwise be required for Wisconsin Electric’s generation portfolio. Photo of existing utility infrastructure near the proposed Foundry Ridge site by Darcey Rojas/EVA.
Wisconsin Electric says the plant would not otherwise be needed
In a June 30, 2026 response to PSC staff, Wisconsin Electric stated:
“But for the incremental load from the VLC, this dispatchable resource would not be required for Wisconsin Electric’s generation portfolio.”
The same response confirms that the Very Large Customer, or VLC, has elected to subscribe to 100% of the proposed Foundry Ridge project following the Commission’s decision in Wisconsin Electric’s Very Large Customer and Bespoke Resources tariff proceeding.
Wisconsin Electric states that Foundry Ridge would not be required for its generation portfolio but for the VLC’s incremental load and confirms that the customer has subscribed to 100% of the project. Source: PSC REF 596269.
A companion response states:
“The project is needed to meet the VLC’s load obligations.”
It also confirms that the VLC intends to continue subscribing to 100% of Foundry Ridge as a Bespoke Resource.
Wisconsin Electric states that Foundry Ridge is needed to meet the subscribing Very Large Customer’s load obligations. Source: PSC REF 596268.
In other words, Wisconsin Electric’s later responses do not identify a need for this dispatchable resource independent of the new demand created by the subscribing Very Large Customer.
That distinction matters.
A power plant may send electricity into a regional transmission grid, and its output will not necessarily travel through a dedicated wire to one facility. But that does not answer the more important question:
Would Foundry Ridge be proposed in Darien, on this timeline, if this one Very Large Customer were not adding extraordinary new demand to Wisconsin Electric’s system?
Wisconsin Electric’s own response indicates that the answer is no.
The utility and customer arrangements began before the merchant CPCN filing
Foundry Ridge entered the CPCN proceeding through an Invenergy-controlled subsidiary classified as a wholesale merchant plant.
The Foundry Ridge application states:
“The Project is a wholesale merchant plant…”
It also says Foundry Ridge may sell or assign the project, in whole or in part, to one or more public utilities or other qualified entities.
Sources:
Wisconsin Electric’s separate acquisition proceeding provides important context about when its involvement began.
In response to a PSC staff request, Wisconsin Electric stated that:
acquisition communications with Invenergy began in 2024;
Wisconsin Electric offered Foundry Ridge to a Very Large Customer in June 2025;
Wisconsin Electric and the customer signed a Project Cancellation Agreement in June 2025;
Wisconsin Electric and Invenergy entered a procurement agreement in August 2025 to reimburse Invenergy for long-lead equipment procurement; and
Wisconsin Electric and Invenergy had not yet signed a final acquisition contract as of the April 2026 response.
Wisconsin Electric reports that acquisition discussions began in 2024, the project was offered to a VLC and a cancellation agreement was signed in June 2025, and a procurement agreement followed in August 2025. Source: PSC REF 586309.
Foundry Ridge’s wholesale-merchant CPCN application was filed in early August 2025.
Therefore, before that CPCN application was filed:
Wisconsin Electric and Invenergy had already been discussing acquisition of the project;
Wisconsin Electric had already offered the project to a Very Large Customer; and
the customer had already signed a financial commitment supporting the project.
The August 2025 procurement agreement may have been signed before or after the CPCN filing. The public response does not provide a more precise date, so that part of the sequence should not be overstated.
But the 2024 acquisition discussions and June 2025 customer agreement clearly predated the CPCN filing.
The public agreement strongly points to Vantage Data Centers
The public version of the Foundry Ridge Payment, Cancellation, and Financing Cost Agreement is heavily redacted.
The customer’s name is removed from the opening paragraph and signature block. For that reason, the agreement does not allow the public to state conclusively that Vantage Data Centers is the subscribing customer.
However, section 12 states:
“This Agreement is subject to the Confidentiality & Non-Disclosure Agreement executed by Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC and WEC Energy Group…”
Source: PSC REF 590022 — Public-redacted Foundry Ridge Payment, Cancellation, and Financing Cost Agreement
Although the customer’s name is redacted elsewhere, section 12 identifies Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC and WEC Energy Group as parties to the confidentiality agreement governing the transaction. Source: PSC REF 590022.
The most accurate conclusion at this stage is:
The public-redacted agreement identifies Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC as a party to the confidentiality agreement governing the Foundry Ridge transaction, strongly indicating that Vantage is the Very Large Customer subscribing to the project.
EVA is continuing to search for an additional public filing that identifies the customer more directly.
Until then, the record supports saying that the agreement strongly points to Vantage, but not stating without qualification that Vantage has been conclusively confirmed as the customer.
The agreement should also be understood in its proper chronology. It reflects an earlier version of the tariff and subscription structure. The Commission later modified the Very Large Customer and Bespoke Resources tariffs, after which Wisconsin Electric reported that the customer elected to subscribe to 100% of Foundry Ridge.
Additional source:PSC REF 591873 — Final Decision in Docket 6630-TE-113
This was not an uncommitted merchant proposal
These findings do not, by themselves, establish that Foundry Ridge’s legal classification as a wholesale merchant plant is invalid.
They do establish something highly significant:
Foundry Ridge was already embedded in a utility-acquisition and large-customer service plan when it entered the CPCN process.
The merchant description did not fully communicate that:
Wisconsin Electric had been discussing acquisition since 2024;
the project had been offered to a specific Very Large Customer;
that customer had signed a financial commitment before the CPCN filing;
Wisconsin Electric was planning to acquire the project and its CPCN rights; and
Wisconsin Electric now says the plant would not be required without that customer’s incremental load.
Wisconsin Electric has opened a separate proceeding—Docket 6630-BS-103—seeking approval to acquire ownership interests in Foundry Ridge and its associated facilities.
An accepted PSC staff data request identifies Wisconsin Electric’s November 5, 2025 application as an application to acquire ownership interests in the natural-gas-fired Foundry Ridge Energy Center. The related accepted Need and Economic Analysis discusses substantial data-center load additions and describes dispatchable generation as increasingly important in response to high-load-factor data-center demand.
Sources:
PSC REF 583439 — PSC Data Request regarding Wisconsin Electric’s proposed acquisition
PSC REF 568293 — Need and Economic Analysis for Foundry Ridge
The issue is therefore not simply whether Invenergy used a legally available merchant-plant structure.
The issue is whether the public and the Commission have evaluated Foundry Ridge with a complete understanding of its likely ownership, committed customer demand, purpose, financing, gas requirements, transmission needs, and relationship to a larger infrastructure buildout.
Why these findings matter to the Commission’s decision
Foundry Ridge would impose real and long-lasting consequences on the Darien community and surrounding environment.
Those consequences include land conversion, air emissions, noise, groundwater withdrawal, wastewater, gas infrastructure, transmission facilities, emergency-response responsibilities, agricultural impacts, wildlife impacts, and decades of industrial use.
The local community would experience those impacts regardless of which legal entity holds the CPCN or how costs and capacity are allocated through separate utility proceedings.
Wisconsin Electric’s responses raise a fundamental public-interest question:
Should a rural community bear the environmental, health, land-use, and infrastructure consequences of a new gas plant that the utility says it would not otherwise need, in order to accommodate the extraordinary electricity demand of one private Very Large Customer?
EVA believes the Commission should deny the Foundry Ridge CPCN—or postpone any decision until it can evaluate the complete and connected record involving:
the Foundry Ridge construction application;
Wisconsin Electric’s proposed acquisition;
the Very Large Customer and Bespoke Resource arrangements;
the customer’s full infrastructure requirements;
gas transportation and pipeline costs;
transmission and interconnection costs;
related generation projects;
environmental impacts; and
the cumulative consequences of the larger data-center-driven energy buildout.
The record is fragmented across dockets, but the impacts are not.
What these records do—and do not—establish
Established by Wisconsin Electric’s filings
Foundry Ridge is now 100% subscribed to one Very Large Customer.
Wisconsin Electric says the plant would not be required for its generation portfolio but for that customer’s incremental load.
Wisconsin Electric says the project is needed to meet the VLC’s load obligations.
Acquisition discussions with Invenergy began in 2024.
Foundry Ridge was offered to a VLC, and a customer cancellation agreement was signed, in June 2025.
Those events occurred before the wholesale-merchant CPCN application was filed.
The public-redacted transaction agreement names Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC in the confidentiality provision.
Not yet conclusively established by the public documents reviewed
That the merchant classification is legally invalid.
That a final acquisition contract was signed before the CPCN filing.
The precise August 2025 date of the procurement agreement.
That Vantage Data Centers is conclusively confirmed as the customer despite the redacted customer fields.
EVA will continue updating its conclusions as additional public records become available.
Public comments are due July 23
Anyone who has not yet submitted a written comment or testified during this comment period may wish to ask the Commission to address these findings directly.
Possible questions include:
Why should Foundry Ridge be approved when Wisconsin Electric says it would not otherwise need this dispatchable resource?
Has the project been evaluated accurately and transparently given that acquisition discussions and the customer agreement predated the CPCN filing?
Has the Commission evaluated the plant, utility acquisition, gas service, transmission requirements, customer demand, and related infrastructure as one connected system?
Why should Darien bear the local impacts created by the demand of one Very Large Customer?
Should the Commission deny or postpone the CPCN until the full cumulative record is available?
Comments should be written in each person’s own words and should refer to PSC Docket 9835-CE-100.
The hearing examiner stated that written comments must be received by the Commission by July 23, 2026.
Only one comment may be submitted per person during this comment period. Anyone who already testified at the July 16 hearing or submitted a written comment should not submit a duplicate, but may share this information with someone who has not yet participated.
Sources and official records
Project need and 100% subscription
PSC REF 596269 — Wisconsin Electric response to PSCW-AMG-2.8
Wisconsin Electric states that Foundry Ridge would not be required for its generation portfolio but for the incremental load from the VLC and confirms that the customer’s subscription level is 100%.
PSC REF 596268 — Wisconsin Electric response to PSCW-AMG-2.7
Wisconsin Electric states that the project is needed to meet the VLC’s load obligations and that the VLC intends to subscribe to 100% of the project.
Acquisition and customer-agreement timeline
PSC REF 586309 — Wisconsin Electric response to PSCW-AMG-1.16
Provides the chronology of the 2024 acquisition discussions, June 2025 customer offer and Project Cancellation Agreement, August 2025 procurement agreement, and absence of a final acquisition contract as of April 2026.
Public-redacted customer agreement
PSC REF 590022 — Second Amended and Restated Payment, Cancellation, and Financing Cost Agreement
Section 12 identifies Vantage Data Centers Management Company, LLC and WEC Energy Group as parties to the confidentiality agreement governing the transaction.
Foundry Ridge merchant-plant application
PSC REF 568187 — November 2025 public revised CPCN application
Describes Foundry Ridge as a wholesale merchant plant and states that the project may be sold or assigned to one or more public utilities or other qualified entities.
PSC REF 592365 — May 2026 revised public CPCN application
The later public revision retains the merchant-plant and possible sale-or-assignment language.
Proposed utility acquisition
PSC REF 583439 — PSC Data Request in Docket 6630-BS-103
Identifies Wisconsin Electric’s November 5, 2025 application to acquire ownership interests in Foundry Ridge and presents PSC staff’s questions concerning gas service, agreements, costs, project timing, and other aspects of the proposed transaction.
PSC REF 568293 — Foundry Ridge Need and Economic Analysis
Provides Wisconsin Electric’s economic and resource-planning rationale and discusses the relationship between substantial data-center load additions and the asserted need for dispatchable generation.
Very Large Customer and Bespoke Resources tariffs
PSC REF 591873 — Final Decision in Docket 6630-TE-113
Approves the VLC and Bespoke Resources tariffs with modifications and provides context for the later 100% subscription responses.
Editor’s note
This is a time-sensitive research update based on public PSC records reviewed through July 22, 2026. It is not the complete Foundry Ridge timeline.
EVA is developing a fully sourced chronology and evidence guide addressing the project’s construction, proposed utility acquisition, customer commitments, tariffs, gas infrastructure, transmission requirements, environmental review, and related projects.