The Road to the CPCN

No 765 Line, Inc. · A Wisconsin 501(c)(3) · Sourced. Coordinated.
Wisconsin PSC permit case · expected fall 2026

Resources › The road to the CPCN

The regulatory process PSC · Regulatory

The road to the CPCN.

How the Wisconsin PSC decides — and where the public record that shapes that decision gets built.

What is a CPCN?

Before a major transmission line can be built in Wisconsin, the company behind it has to obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity — a CPCN. It is the formal permission a project needs to proceed.

The agency that grants or denies it is the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (the PSC). The Commission weighs whether the project is needed, what it would cost, what reasonable alternatives exist, and what its effects on people and the environment would be. The application is reviewed on a record — written filings, expert testimony, studies, and public comment — and the Commission decides based on what that record shows.

For the proposed 765 kV line, the campaign expects that application to be filed at the Wisconsin PSC in fall 2026. Until it is filed, there is no docket to comment in; once it is, the process below opens up.

Source · campaign
  1. Done · regional planning

    MISO Long-Range Transmission Plan (Tranche 2.1)

    The line entered MISO’s regional transmission plan as a 765 kV project on 150–200-foot steel towers, proposed through the Driftless region of southwestern Wisconsin. Source · MISO Long-Range Transmission Plan; MariBell/BECI project description

  2. Done · 2026

    Developer outreach begins

    Landowners along the proposed corridor began receiving letters from the developers. One such letter, from Transource Energy on April 24, 2026, states that “specific routes, structures, siting impacts, or localized effects cannot yet be answered.” Source · Transource Energy letter, April 24, 2026

  3. Expected · fall 2026

    CPCN application filed

    The application is filed at the Wisconsin PSC, opening the formal docket the Commission will decide on. Source · campaign

  4. After filing

    Intervention & public comment open

    Once the application is filed, members of the public can submit comment and qualifying parties can petition to intervene and become part of the official record.

  5. Following

    Evidentiary hearings

    The Commission takes sworn testimony and evidence from the applicant, intervenors, and Commission staff, and cross-examination tests the claims on each side.

  6. Final step

    PSC decision

    The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin grants or denies the CPCN — on the strength of the record built in the steps above.

Why this matters

The Commission decides on the record — the filings, testimony, and comment gathered before the vote. That means the record built before the decision is what shapes it. The CPCN proceeding is the campaign’s highest-leverage venue, and the work to influence it happens while the docket is open, not after.

At the heart of the proceeding

The benefit case is where this proceeding will be won or lost.

The benefit dispute

Does the line return more than it costs?

MISO’s planning case claims the project returns $1.80 to $3.50 of benefit for every dollar spent. MISO’s own Independent Market Monitor — Dr. David Patton of Potomac Economics — estimates less than 40¢ of benefit per dollar. That gap is the central factual question the record must resolve, and it is where public comment and intervenor testimony carry weight.

Source · MISO LRTP benefit metrics; Potomac Economics (IMM)