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Plant Information

Wisconsin Public Service provides electricity and natural gas to over 400,000 customers. The electricity produced by the company comes from fossil, nuclear, wind, and hydroelectric generating plants:

• Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant
  We continue to purchase nuclear power from this plant, formerly owned by WPS and located south of Kewaunee on the shore of Lake Michigan, on a long-term contract until 2013 at a cost about what we expected it would cost to generate it. Selling the plant has proven to be a benefit to WPS customers thus far.
• Hydroelectric Power Plants
  We currently own and operate 15 hydroelectric plants on the Wisconsin, Tomahawk, Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers.
• Coal-fired Power Plants
  The majority of the electricity used annually by WPS customers comes from our coal-fired power plants.
• Peaking Power Plants
  Our peaking plants provide power only at times when our customers' needs for electricity reach a peak that cannot be supplied by conventional generation.
• Nitrogen Oxide Retrofit Projects
  A series of emission control projects are underway at WPS coal-fueled power plants that are designed to meet state and federal air quality regulatory programs.
• Weston Power Plant
  To help meet growing electric demand, WPS has added a 500-megawatt coal-fired electric generator at the Weston Power Plant site.
• Wind Power
  Wind power is one source of electrical generation which is being researched for future energy applications.

Approximately 65 percent of the electricity used annually by WPS customers comes from our coal-fired power plants, 15 percent from the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant, and 4 percent from combustion turbines, hydroelectric and renewable resources. The remaining 16 percent comes from purchased power. This purchased power comes not only from neighboring utilities in Wisconsin, but also from utilities in nearby states. These power purchases are generally made to avoid running some of our more expensive generating units, such as combustion turbines. Therefore, these purchases keep our costs (and rates) down.

The company purchases all of its gas supply directly from gas producers and marketing companies, and contracts with ANR Pipeline Company for transportation and storage services needed to deliver the gas from the production areas in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Canada to WPS's market area in northeastern Wisconsin.