If you’ve been contacted

The pace has picked up. MGS — the developer of the BECI line — has published preliminary study segment maps naming specific roads and crossings across nine counties, is holding landowner meetings, and has begun contacting landowners directly. On the MariBell line, Dairyland Power Cooperative and GridLiance Heartland expect to file with the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in fall 2026; BECI’s filing is expected in early 2027. This is a live process, worth taking seriously today.

Their schedule does not have to become yours. A first conversation is not a contract, and no route is final unless the Public Service Commission approves a project. What helps most right now: see where the study segments and routes fall relative to your land (the map below can help), get every request and every answer in writing, compare notes with your neighbors — and talk to your own attorney before signing anything.

BECI’s developer told FERC that without a CPCN it must get land rights piecemeal

In April 2026, MGS Wisconsin, the company developing BECI, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a set of rate incentives. Among them was the right to recover its costs from ratepayers if the project is abandoned for reasons beyond its control. To win that protection, it had to describe the risks it faces, and land was one of them. The approval it was writing about is the CPCNA Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity — the construction permit the developers must win from the Wisconsin PSC before they can build. The CPCN case is where the public can formally weigh in., the construction permit the Wisconsin Public Service Commission must grant before a line can be built.

FERC’s order of June 26, 2026 restates the company’s position: “if it is unable to obtain a CPCN from the Wisconsin Commission, it will have to secure all land rights on a piecemeal basis, which in turn could add several months to the BECI Project development timeline.”

“Piecemeal” is the developer’s word, and in plain English it means one parcel at a time. The only consequence it named was a delay, and the order’s word is “could.” The CPCN also sits in a longer list of approvals the company told FERC it needs, from Clean Water Act permits to county road and drainage approvals. As of September 2026, neither project has a CPCN, and neither developer has filed a CPCN application. MariBell’s application is expected in fall 2026 and BECI’s in early 2027. What a CPCN would change about your own land is a legal question, and the person to ask is your own attorney.

Is your land near the route?

The proposed and alternate routes are not finalized — but this map is the quickest way to get oriented. Type your town or address and it will fly to your area, so you can see where the corridor could fall and what it crosses nearby.