Proposed transmission line for a Wisconsin data center meets public opposition

Farmington resident Beth Csaszar lives about 12 miles away from the planned data center development in Port Washington.

She was aware of that development, but she didn’t think it would affect her directly. 

That is, until she got a flyer from American Transmission Co. in her mailbox in August about their plans for a $1.4 billion transmission line project to help support the data center. One of the proposed routes for the project runs in front of her home. 

“It was absolutely a shock,” Csaszar said.

American Transmission Co. wants to build new transmission lines, rebuild existing lines and build new substations across several counties as part of the project, according to a recent application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. 

Port Washington residents have spoken out against the data center plans during recent public meetings. The Port Washington Common Council approved the development agreement for the project in August.

On Wednesday, OpenAI, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers announced plans to invest $15 billion into the campus, according to a Reuters report.

The preferred route of the transmission line project for that data center campus is just over 90 miles long and would include the construction of new 345-kilovolt lines and new substations. An alternate route, which would cost an estimated $1.64 billion, is also included in the application.

The initial phase of the data center project includes four data center buildings that are expected to need 1.3 gigawatts of electricity. Other phases could use up to 3.5 gigawatts of electricity.

Csaszar said her home of 28 years is next to one of the potential routes for the transmission line. She and other area residents have banded together to oppose the plans. 

“When the data (center) project was approved in Port Washington, nobody had any idea the implications for the neighboring communities,” Csaszar said.

Tom and Mary Uttech have lived on a 52-acre property in the town of Saukville since 1987. American Transmission Co.’s preferred transmission line route would cut through their land, Tom Uttech said. 

Tom Uttech is an artist and is known as one of the “leading landscape painters working today in the United States,” according to the Museum of Wisconsin Art. He said he uses the land for his paintings. 

“It’s a very rare resource of inspiration and respite for a landscape painter here in Wisconsin,” Tom Uttech said about his property.

He’s worried about giant power lines cutting through it.

“That will destroy a very important part of the visual experience of being in this prairie, and it will undoubtedly diminish how useful it will be to me as a creative individual,” he said.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative law firm, issued a warning to American Transmission Co. on behalf of the Uttechs. The letter said the power lines going up on the property would “not satisfy the ‘public use’ requirements of the state and federal constitutions.” 

Some residents say project threatens region’s ‘pristine rural character’

Residents who are opposed to the transmission line project say the project would mean lower property values and disruptions to wildlife in the area. Some residents have started a website against the project.

“Many of us treasure the pristine rural character of this part of Ozaukee County,” the group’s website says.

Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke IV said Tuesday he will send a letter to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin and American Transmission Co. asking them to select the alternate route. 

“The preferred route impacts some of the most pristine and rural areas of our county, and I do not want that area to be impacted,” Neitzke said in the letter, which he read aloud during Tuesday’s common council meeting.

A spokesperson for American Transmission Co. said the company was required by state law to submit two transmission lines routes to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in the application.

“The PSCW will review our project application and the proposed route options,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “If our application is approved, they will select the final route.”

The spokesperson said that process by the Public Service Commission will also include public comments and testimony and that “ATC encourages input into the project review process.” 

The developer behind the project is Vantage Data Centers. During a press briefing Wednesday, Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said the transmission line project is the most expensive line ever proposed for “essentially” one customer in the state.

The Port Washington Common Council could vote on the tax incremental district, or TID, for the data center development in November.