Alicia Shoberg
Brad Hinkfuss next to an electrical meter.
Hinkfuss says requiring individual meters for apartment units, as in the building above, drives up costs for affordable housing developments.
Housing Initiatives is looking to build a new 16-unit residential development on Roth Street in north Madison. But the local nonprofit is butting heads with Madison Gas and Electric over securing a key cost-saving measure — a unified electric meter.
“I’m still shocked, and I don’t feel like I’ve got a good explanation for why this is,” says Brad Hinkfuss, executive director of Housing Initiatives, which provides affordable, supportive housing for people with mental health challenges. He says MGE alerted him on April 14 that his written request for a single meter had been denied.
A regulation created by the state Public Service Commission (PSC) and last updated in 2002 requires that residential properties built or renovated after 1980 have electrical meters installed for each unit in a building. The rule offers some exceptions for qualifying buildings, including those considered “transient multi-dwelling buildings,” such as hotels, nursing homes, college dormitories, community-based residential facilities and residential care apartment complexes.
Developers typically first seek an exemption from their utility. If the utility denies their request, they may seek a waiver from the PSC.
Hinkfuss believes that his building, which includes supportive services for tenants with significant barriers to stable housing, would fall under the rule’s exemption for “community-based residential facilities and residential care complexes or similar facilities.”
He also wants to use solar energy in part to power the development, which is much easier to do if an array is plugged into one meter: “You can’t split it to 30 meters. It’s a wiring nightmare, and it’s a technical obstacle.”
Were Hinkfuss to install meters for each unit in the building, he’d have to pay for their installation costs and an additional $224 per month for MGE’s “grid connection” charge — Housing Initiatives covers all utility costs for tenants in its buildings.
MGE, which is seeking a 4.9% and 4.3% electrical rate increase in 2026 and 2027, says it “does not have control over this issue.”
“It is not up to MGE to ‘grant an exemption,’” says Steve Schultz, corporate communications manager for MGE. “Like other regulated utilities in Wisconsin, we must follow the rules laid out in the code by the PSC — our state regulators. The PSC is responsible for administering this code and ruling on waiver requests, not an individual utility.”
But multiple energy experts Isthmus spoke with say that utilities are able to approve the interconnection agreements for shared metering without needing commission approval.
“There’s nothing in the rule that says that the utility does not have authority to provide an exemption,” says Ciaran Gallagher, energy and air manager at renewable energy nonprofit Clean Wisconsin. “ I understand that it is MGE’s stance that they do not believe they can. I disagree with that.”
“No PSC involvement is required at all in those [cases],” agrees Ben Behlke, clean technology manager at RENEW Wisconsin.
In a follow-up email, Schultz acknowledged that the utility can exempt properties that qualify as “transient multi-dwelling buildings.” Developers must request exemptions in writing, providing “a detailed explanation showing that a proposed property qualifies as transient housing as described in the code.”
He adds that buildings that provide “permanent housing” are not eligible for single meters.
Heather Allen, director of policy in Wisconsin for clean energy nonprofit Elevate, says that utilities generally have “wide latitude” in determining metering requirements but notes that utilities have a financial incentive to reject single metering.
“When a, let’s say, 100-unit building shifts from being individually metered to being centrally metered, you’re losing 99 fixed charges,” says Allen. “Over time, that is a serious source of income to a utility that they can no longer rely upon.”
Mike Noreen, a former sustainability coordinator for River Falls, puts it bluntly: “Really, what it comes down to is collecting that money.”
The single-meter requirement is meant to ensure that residents who do not pay their utility bills don’t cause shutoffs for others. Hinkfuss says MGE permitted single metering for affordable housing developments he oversaw as director of operations at Porchlight, another homelessness services nonprofit he worked for from 2004-2016; those properties include housing at 4002-4006 Nakoosa Trail (24 units), 4012-4016 Nakoosa Trail (24 units), and 2718 Pheasant Ridge Trail (16 units).
“All of my dealings were with MGE, not the PSC,” Hinkfuss says. “At no point did we need to make a direct request to the PSC, nor did we appeal an earlier decision to the PSC.”
When asked why MGE approved single metering for those properties, Schulz says the utility cannot discuss individual customer records. Gallagher says there is some commission precedent for apartment buildings “mostly intended for folks experiencing homelessness or mental health issues” to receive waivers under the residential care exemption, largely based on the number of services that the facility offers.
“The [Porchlight] projects…all have some level of supportive service tied to the housing program, which is owned and run by a nonprofit organization,” says Hinkfuss. “There was little or no question about the applicability of the exception for those projects, and MGE granted them.”
Hinkfuss says MGE employees have given him unclear explanations as to why the utility is unwilling to allow him to use one meter for this new development — the last he heard, representatives from MGE felt that the “permanency of our housing was what would disqualify it” and advised him to seek a waiver from the commission. He’s hoping a solution can be found without going to the commission, which would be costly, time-consuming, and offer no certain success.
“The more I can single-meter new developments, the more it helps my long-term operating costs, the more it equips me to put my money, instead of into high utility costs, into services for my clients to keep them stably housed.”
The commission is considering a change to the rule that would clarify the conditions under which a developer can receive a waiver. The change would allow waivers for buildings that “meet established high efficiency standards,” have minimal electric usage under tenant control, or are created in partnership with state or federal agencies to provide affordable housing. Developers who change an existing building’s occupancy type or substantially remodel it would also not be required to install individual meters “if there is a legal impediment” to their installation or if their cost “exceeds the long-term benefits of individual metering.”
MGE has opposed the change in public comment. The city of Madison and renewable energy groups are supportive of less strict criteria, though they propose the commission eliminate the requirement regarding single meters altogether.
The public comment period on the proposed changes closed in March. The state Legislature would have to approve any changes, so it could be several months until a new rule is finalized.
Hinkfuss might not have time to wait. He has already secured a contractor to begin work and decisions need to be made soon. He continues to hope that he can secure a waiver through MGE, noting that his group’s efforts house people who might be “staying in the shelter or living out at Dairy Drive, or in the woods.”
“These types of projects succeed in the end because the community gets behind them and understands that this is the best option,” says Hinkfuss. “It’s all part of the housing-first philosophy. You house people first, rather than provide barriers to it.”
