Oracle is building a huge AI data centre in Port Washington, Wisconsin, with Vantage and OpenAI. The nearly one-gigawatt Lighthouse Campus is a roughly $15 billion project. To get the electricity to run it, though, Oracle first has to satisfy the local regulator, and that is proving expensive.
In a sworn affidavit, Oracle says the rules would force it to post a letter of credit “exceeding $7 billion,” at an annual cost that “could exceed $100 million.”
Why the regulator won’t budge
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin tightened the terms in May. It stripped the utility’s power to waive the guarantee case by case. It also set an exemption bar few can clear: an A-/A3 credit rating.
The commission has since “declined to take action” on Oracle’s petition to reopen the decision, telling the Financial Times the rule protects existing customers. The logic is simple. A giant data centre books a whole power plant’s worth of generation. If it walks away, someone pays. The regulator wants that someone not to be ordinary ratepayers.
