Rachel Catlett farms land in Walworth County that could soon sit in the path of not one, but two separate high-voltage transmission lines. She learned by mail that her property could also be in the path of a potential 345-kilovolt line called WISE.
Catlett has already been fighting the Bell Center–Columbia–Sugar Creek–Illinois transmission line, or BECI, a project from Midcontinent Grid Solutions that would carry 765 kilovolts of electricity across roughly 190 miles of the state, according to TMJ4 News. The line was unveiled roughly two months before TMJ4's report, and it has already drawn sustained opposition from residents and municipalities across the county. Now Catlett has learned her land may also fall along the route of WISE, the Wisconsin Southeast Transmission Project, a 345-kilovolt line proposed by developer Viridon.
Two Projects, One Shared Connection Point
BECI and WISE are different projects run by different companies, but they share a critical piece of infrastructure: both are planned to connect to a substation near Elkhorn known as Sugar Creek. Michael Cotter, Walworth County's Land Use & Resource Management Director, said last week that three high-capacity power lines, including BECI, WISE, and another proposed 345-kilovolt line, are all slated to connect at the Sugar Creek substation. That third 345-kilovolt line would also require a large expansion through farmland, according to Cotter, who estimated the substation area itself could grow to around 165 acres.
The BECI line's own project materials describe a preferred route running through Crawford, Vernon, Richland, Sauk, Columbia, Dane, Jefferson, Walworth and Rock counties, as reported by SWNews4U. That outlet also notes the project's possible route maps do not show where individual towers would actually stand, and that the line is described as involving 91% so-called greenfield easements rather than existing utility corridors. Wisconsin law, per the Wisconsin Legislature, directs developers to prioritize existing utility corridors first, then highway and railroad corridors and certain recreational trails, before turning to entirely new corridors.
Why WISE Exists and How It Compares
WISE would consist of four new 345-kilovolt substations and four new transmission lines, according to a selection report from MISO, the regional grid planner that chose Viridon Midcontinent LLC to build the project in January. MISO's report states the agency identified the need for WISE back in 2023 after studying weaknesses in the existing southeastern Wisconsin grid. One segment of the project, between Big Bend and Sugar Creek, would run through Racine, Walworth and Waukesha counties, per the WISE project website.
Viridon's winning bid estimated a capital cost of $349 million, according to MISO's selection report. The project website describes WISE as having been chosen through a competitive process as the lowest-cost solution, spanning approximately 106 miles across seven counties in southeast Wisconsin. Utility Dive has separately described the same Viridon project as running about 105 miles, a discrepancy the available reporting does not resolve.
WISE remains in early routing and siting, and the project website states that initial routes will be released only after they are established. Unlike BECI, whose current proceeding before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission concerns whether Midcontinent Grid Solutions can operate as a utility and includes a request for an exemption from certain state laws governing utility holding companies, WISE has not yet reached a formal state review stage. Environmental studies and regulatory review are part of the WISE project.
A Narrow Window to Weigh In on BECI
That PSC proceeding for BECI does not determine whether the line will be built or where it would run, according to WRCO. Residents, landowners, local governments and organizations who want to intervene in that utility-status review have until Thursday, October 29, to submit a written request. Midcontinent Grid Solutions is expected to file a separate application seeking construction approval in early 2027, the station reports, and the company has said the line is needed to improve electric grid reliability.
That reliability argument is tied to rising demand. An environmental public-health professor cited by Spectrum News 1 said data centers are projected to increase Wisconsin's electricity consumption by about 40%. The scale of public pushback has been building alongside that case for the lines. On October 13, 267 residents from 10 Wisconsin counties gathered at the State Capitol to meet with lawmakers and staff about the proposed BECI and MariBell transmission lines, per WRCO's report.
Local Frustration Over a Washington-Driven Process
Cotter has criticized both the BECI and WISE projects, saying the fight over them played out in Washington, D.C., without local residents being told. People in the town of Sugar Creek have already packed their town hall to oppose the planned BECI line, TMJ4 reported. Catlett said she and her neighbors feel inundated with out-of-state transmission proposals, and compared learning about the second line to getting hit by lightning twice.
Catlett said power lines that affect homes and community character go too far, and she has urged her neighbors to start a separate folder of documentation for the new WISE proposal on top of what they have already compiled for BECI. Viridon is hosting WISE open houses throughout southeast Wisconsin in the coming weeks, including sessions planned for Fond du Lac, Johnson Creek, Juneau, Brookfield, Elkhorn, Janesville and Mt. Pleasant, with most sessions split between an 11 a.m. and a 4 p.m. local time slot. Catlett and her neighbors say they are not backing down from either fight.
