Energy 2030 Framework

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A vision and direction for Building Tomorrow's Community Energy Company

Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) has been privileged to serve the energy needs of our community for more than 150 years. As your community energy company, we have done so in ways that reflect and balance the values and preferences of everyone we serve. To meet that commitment, we have a long tradition of engaging and working with our customers.

More than 10 years ago, we held our first wide-reaching Community Energy Conversations to gather customer input. Those conversations shaped and informed our Energy 2015 Plan. Energy 2015 included substantial commitments:  eliminating coal burning at our downtown Madison power plant, increasing renewable energy by almost 12 times and reducing CO2 emissions by almost 20% from 2005 levels. We worked hard and met our goals early.

Now it's time to build on the progress we made. MGE is at the crossroads of a new energy world. The issues facing us today are complex and global. New technology has brought changes to how consumers use energy and to how we can potentially serve customers' needs. We can't address these issues alone. Going forward, we will need even more customer input, collaboration and participation to assure that the ways we take advantage of the transformative opportunities before us will best meet our shared goals.

Consequently in 2015, we undertook an even more robust effort to collect input from our customers and communities about how best to build a community energy company for the future. We gathered input through Community Energy Conversations, collaborations, customer research and numerous discussions with stakeholders. Customers affirmed the steps we have already taken to increase renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions. We also heard customers' continuing concerns about further reducing carbon emissions throughout our economy.

With the input we've gathered so far, we can now set a direction for the next 15 years, building on the progress we made through our Energy 2015 Plan. We found strong support for the objectives of our 2030 framework. The following framework provides the direction and high-level goals that MGE believes are important to strive for in the next 10 to 15 years. Working together with our customers, we believe we can achieve our goals.

Using this framework, we want to collaborate with customers and others to figure out how to move forward and build the next steps to meet those goals. To further define those steps, we'll do research and we'll test ideas, concepts and options with customers. We'll work with customers to develop voluntary programs and experiment with projects to gauge customer acceptance. By working together, we hope to implement options that can best meet our shared goals and priorities. This will be an ongoing process of developing and testing ideas with customers as new technologies evolve over time.

Energy 2030 Framework

Working together with our customers, we will:

1. Transition to a more environmentally sustainable energy supply.


2. Give customers more control around energy.


3. Reduce costs by managing our collective use of energy.


4. Build a dynamic, integrated electric grid to enable new technology.


5. Ensure that all customers benefit from changing technology.


6. Deepen our engagement with the community.


Conditions for Success

The success of MGE's proposed Energy 2030 framework will depend on several important conditions. Customer participation in programs and partnerships will be critical to the achievement of the goals. We can only achieve these goals by working with our customers.

Underlying the goals are critical assumptions and projections. We have made assumptions about customer growth and customers controlling their energy use. We are projecting that we can work with customers and they will reduce overall and peak energy use that will more than offset additional electric use by a growing population. We assume that renewable technology will become increasingly cost competitive.

Should our assumptions not be met, it may be necessary for us to modify our plans. Our plans also may need to evolve as technology and markets change over time, as well as any changes in regulations, laws or statutes. We must secure favorable regulatory treatment for our initiatives and investments as appropriate.

At all times, we need to meet our fundamental obligation to serve customers and deliver critical service to this community. Most importantly, we must receive strong community support for all facets of the Energy 2030 framework.

Next Steps

Working with customers, we will now need to figure out—over time—the specific initiatives, investments and programs to best accomplish the goals we've set. This will be an evolving and ongoing process. As technologies evolve and come into the market, we'll continue to collaborate with customers to develop our plans. We will use customer research to develop and test ideas and concepts. We'll learn and deepen our thinking by experimenting with voluntary pilot programs, demonstration projects, etc., as new technologies and options become available.

We will continually monitor our progress toward these collective goals. And, as we achieve the initial steps, MGE will again collaborate and provide more opportunities for customers to engage with us to develop our future next steps to achieve these goals.

Thank You

We would like to thank all the people who made our 2015 Community Energy Conversations and other engagement efforts so helpful, informative and productive. We look forward to continuing our engagement and collaboration as we build our Energy 2030 framework and tomorrow's community energy company together.