Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report

MGE has a special responsibility to provide safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our obligation to serve demands we prepare for the unexpected.

In 2020, MGE employees faced the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our expert team in Safety, Sustainability and Environmental Affairs worked with our multifunctional Incident Command team to provide for the safety of our employees to ensure business continuity and reliable service for our customers who rely on us to meet the everyday needs of their families and their businesses.

Consistently top-ranked for electric reliability, MGE continues to work toward transitioning our energy supply mix to a greater use of renewable resources while maintaining our commitment to dependable power. In May 2019, MGE committed to working with customers to achieve net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. By working with customers to decarbonize our energy supply, advance energy efficiency and electrify transportation, we can meet our goal of net-zero carbon by 2050. If we can go further faster through the use of new technologies and partnerships with our customers and communities, we will.

MGE has been part of the communities we serve for more than 100 years. We strive to know our diverse communities and appreciate the privilege to serve our customers, many of whom were impacted by the pandemic. To help address the public health emergency, MGE continued to provide safe and reliable service and continued our long-standing commitment to work with customers who were experiencing hardship. Our MGE Foundation also contributed toward local relief efforts. And, in a new virtual environment, our marketing and community services teams expanded the ways in which MGE could connect and engage our customers safely.

Our service territory boasts a world-class university, state government, a thriving biotech industry and a growing entrepreneurial community, all of which rely on reliable energy to grow our local economy. But our mission goes beyond pipes and wires. Through our MGE Foundation, community involvement and investment in the future of our communities, MGE seeks to work with our community stakeholders to improve the quality of life for all who live and work in the areas we serve.

As our community grows and becomes more richly diverse, MGE is growing and changing to meet our responsibility to serve our customers equitably. In fulfilling our ongoing mission to serve, we continue to challenge ourselves to be even more inclusive and equitable in how we serve, partner and engage our communities. We’re also committed to ensuring our transition to greater sustainability and new technologies benefits all customers. That’s part of our responsibility and a foundational objective as we chart our path forward.

Thank you for reading and for joining us on this journey.

The COVID-19 pandemic defined 2020 in many ways, from adjusting procedures in the field to maintaining office employees’ well-being when many are working remotely. As Jeff Keebler described, we continue to address challenges related to the pandemic, equipping our field personnel with personal protective equipment (PPE) to continue to meet the critical needs of our community reliably. Safety of our employees and customers is always a top priority.

In 2019, we marked our lowest recordable incident rate and our second-lowest lost-time incident rate since we started keeping records in 1971. Our continuous improvement teams are employee-led, engaging our workforce each year to inform the teams' areas of focus and their goals for building upon achievements in our journey to safety excellence.

In November 2020, we released a report by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies that evaluated our goal of net-zero carbon electricity by 2050. The independent analysis confirmed our goal is in line with or more aggressive than pathways modeled by global climate scientists to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We continue to partner with the Nelson Institute on further research to advance our deep decarbonization strategies.

One of those key strategies is decarbonizing our electricity generation and growing our use of renewable energy. In 2020, we had four major solar projects totaling more than 150 megawatts under construction, including our Morey Field Solar array in Middleton, Wis., which came online in August 2020. The local project serves our innovative Shared Solar program and two major customers, the City of Middleton and the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, under our Renewable Energy Rider. These two programs reflect MGE’s commitment to innovative solutions to meet our customers’ diverse needs and sustainability goals.

As your community energy company, MGE partners with our customers, communities and local stakeholders to achieve our own clean energy goals and to make a positive impact through collaboration. Our projects, programs and community partnerships highlighted in this report illustrate who we are as a locally based energy company and who we strive to be in our service to our customers.

MGE also is committed to accountability and to transparency. More information related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters is available in the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) ESG/sustainability reporting templates at mgeenergy.com/environment. I encourage you to learn more and thank you for your interest and partnership in growing our sustainable practices.