ALLIANT ENERGY CORPORATION

ALLIANT ENERGY CORPORATION. Alliant Energy Corporation is a public utility holding company which incorporated in 1981. (1) In 2013 corporate headquarters were located in Madison, Wisconsin. General offices were located in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, Iowa; utility operation facilities are located in communities throughout the utility's service territory in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. (2) Alliant Energy's two regulated utilities include Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL) and Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL). IPL started in 1925 as the INTERSTATE POWER COMPANY (IPC) and which was a consolidation of several small utility companies scattered across northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. IPC merged or consolidated with several other Iowa based utilities before forming IPL, which was later merged with WPL.

IPC expanded greatly in the late 1920s to include operations in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Manitoba (Canada). In the late 1920s one of the largest purchases was what became its northern Minnesota territory from the Wilbur Foshay interests.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the effects of the GREAT DEPRESSION and passage of laws to regulate utility operations at the state and federal level had an effect on IPC. In Iowa, the legislature passed laws making it easier for cities to establish municipal utilities.

During the 1940s, IPC divested itself of all its operations that were not part of its main territory in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. As IPC sold its properties that were isolated from the main system, it picked up others that were adjacent to its system and more easily interconnected: the Eastern Iowa Power system, and the Iowa and Minnesota properties of the Central States Power and Light Corporation.

The other part of IPL — IES Utilities — incorporated in Iowa in 1925 as the Iowa Railway and Light Corporation. (3) IES and IPC merged in the mid-1990s to form IPL. In 2013, IPL provided electricity and gas to communities in Iowa and southern Minnesota; while WPL serves southern and central Wisconsin. (4)

In the 1970s IES constructed the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a 615 MW nuclear plant in Palo, Iowa. In 2006, Alliant closed a deal with FPL Energy to sell their interest in the plant. (4)

Alliant Energy has also provided several non-regulated services, including ground transportation and energy engineering such as wind and geothermal energy.

From June 2011 through early 2012 the Smarter Electricity Pilot Study was a project of Smarter Sustainable Dubuque the City’s partnership with IBM Research and a component of the Sustainable Dubuque initiative. (5) This project, conducted in partnership with Alliant Energy - Interstate Power and Light Company and IBM Research, was funded by a $1.4 million grant from the Iowa Office of Energy Independence. More than 1,200 households volunteered to participate in Dubuque’s Smarter Electricity Pilot Study, exceeding the target of 1,000.

IBM and Alliant Energy’s roles in this project were to provide the technology and services allowing volunteer participants to monitor their electric energy consumption. (6) Throughout the study, anonymous electricity usage data was collected and analyzed, providing volunteer households with information, insights, and actionable intelligence to potentially lower their energy costs. The study is utilizing “cloud computing,” or internet-based computing, to enable citizens to access information about their energy usage and habits and share best practices through the portal over a six-month period. (7)

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Source:

1. Alliant Energy. "Company Information," Website. Online: http://www.alliantenergy.com/AboutAlliantEnergy/CompanyInformation/

2. Alliant Energy, Form 10K, Annual Report, February 26, 2010 p.2. Online: http://edgar.secdatabase.com/1438/35254110000009/filing-main.htm

3. Ibid., p.10

4. Alliant Energy. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliant_Energy

5. Grillo, Terry. "Smart Electricity Data Powers Savings in Iowa Experiment," Government Technology, September 16, 2011. Online: http://www.govtech.com/technology/Smart-Electricity-Data-Powers-Savings-in-Iowa-Experiment.html

6. "Smarter Electricity," City of Dubuque-Official Website. Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/index.aspx?NID=1349

7. "City of Dubuque Launches Smarter Electricity Portal," KCRG.com. August 26, 2011. Online: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/City-of-Dubuque-Launches-Smarter-Electricity-Portal-128467533.html