Announcements

L to R: Ashlie Timm, Jeff Denz, Daniel Segura, Mason Leinbach, Eddie Fletcher

National Preparedness Month is an opportunity each year to highlight and promote the importance of family and community disaster planning.

It’s a reminder to know what disasters and hazards could affect your area, how to get emergency alerts and where to go if you and your family needs to evacuate.

Preparedness begins with a plan
Though we all hope disaster won’t strike, a plan ensures we can respond and recover for our employees and customers. It’s important for us to have plans in place at work. It’s just as important to have a plan at home for you and your family.

Ready.gov provides information to help create a plan specific to your needs and the types of disasters that could impact your area.

It will help you think through how your family will reconnect if you’re separated when disaster strikes.

It will help you with shelter, evacuation and communications plans and provide suggestions for what to put in your emergency preparedness kit.

Another great resource is the American Red Cross. They make it easy to find what common emergencies and natural disasters occur where you live and help you complete three easy steps to prepare:

1. Get a kit.
2. Make a plan.
3. Be informed.

For additional help with your emergency kit, check out this video from our August PowerHouse Challenge. Pete and Megan walk you through how to create a kit for storms and power outages.

A little bit of planning goes a long way. Take a few minutes to check out helpful resources and plan with your family.

Monday marked a major milestone in Wisconsin for our Clean Energy Blueprint. We hosted a ribbon cutting for our Bear Creek Solar Project, our company’s first utility-scale solar project in the state. At 50 megawatts (MW), the solar farm in Richland County can generate enough electricity to power approximately 13,000 homes.

In addition to this site producing clean solar energy to power homes and businesses, Richland County and the town of Buena Vista will receive an estimated $200,000 in combined shared revenue payments annually for the next 30 years through the state’s shared revenue program.

“Across Wisconsin, we are working with families, farmers, businesses and communities to develop renewable energy projects both big and small,” said David de Leon, President of our Wisconsin energy company. “Guided by our Purpose-driven Strategy to serve customers and build stronger communities, this solar farm diversifies our energy portfolio, boosts American energy independence and increases access to affordable electricity.”

Our Clean Energy Blueprint includes constructing more than 1,000 MW of utility-scale solar energy at 12 sites across Wisconsin. The Bear Creek Solar Project is the first of these 12 sites to become operational. Three more projects are expected to go into service later this year.

As a precaution to our employees and customers, we are sharing the latest scam from bad actors pretending to be affiliated with solar installation companies.

Remember to disregard those phone calls and avoid giving out any personal information. As a way to #StopScams, here are some signs to look out for.

The digital divide represents the gap in access to reliable and affordable high-speed internet service. This gap is especially pronounced in less densely populated rural areas and among financially disadvantaged customers and communities.

For the majority of Alliant Energy's customers, and for tens of millions of Americans nationwide, circumstances like these are reality. In fact, 67% of our customers in Wisconsin and 75% of our customers in Iowa lack access to reliable and affordable broadband service.

Inequities continue to expand and are impacting so many individuals across our nation. To truly address racial and social injustice and to advance diversity, equity and inclusion—equal access to essential services is a must.

Alliant Energy is hosting a speaker series to bring attention to this important matter. To learn more about this initiative and download materials from speaker events, visit our Broadband webpage.

Growing our first Community Solar garden in Iowa

Cedar Rapids to host the first plot

Cedar Rapids will soon be the home of our first Community Solar garden in Iowa. It will be located north of the 1100 block of 33rd Avenue SW on company-owned property. We’ve had our eye on the location for growing a solar garden for a long time.

Construction is underway, with estimated completion of late summer 2023. The project is in direct response to customer requests for additional opportunities to access renewable energy.

Growing Community Solar
Our Community Solar program allows our electric customers to enjoy the benefits of solar power without the hassle of installing solar panels on their property. Instead, they can buy blocks of the solar garden. They receive monthly credits on electric bills for every block purchased for the 20-year life of the project. The garden will consist of 18,000 solar blocks. Each 250-watt block will produce an estimated average of 541 kilowatts annually. At max output, the 4.5-megawatt solar project could power 3,600 homes.

“We are excited for our Iowa customers to enjoy the benefits of clean, renewable energy,” said Terry Kouba, President of our Iowa energy company. “The Community Solar program is just one more way we can use our knowledge and resources to serve our customers while bringing them options and solutions to meet their needs.”

Sowing seeds of solar partnerships
Transamerica and Aegon Asset Management, a global insurance and investment group based in Cedar Rapids, has committed to purchase 60% of the garden’s solar blocks and become the anchor tenant for the project.

We’re donating up to $400,000 in solar blocks to Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity homeowners. Those homeowners will receive monthly credits on their bills, too, for the life of the project. The director of Habitat said taking away the pressures of staying housed and keeping the lights on allows families to focus on opportunities to improve their health, transportation, education, employment and more.

Learn more about the project in this blog post.

Threat alert: Cybercriminals pose as the IRS in recent phishing campaigns

Attackers use fake tax form notifications to spread malware through infected attachments and websites

It’s tax season. Tax-related scams and phishing attacks are on the rise. There are multiple phishing attacks going around in which attackers pose as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The messages claim that you need to download and review a tax form. You are instructed to either download an attachment (such as a Word, Excel or ZIP file) or click a link to a password or CAPTCHA-protected website to access these tax forms.

These downloads contain malicious software, also known as malware, that can give cybercriminals access to and control over your device.

Here are some examples of the emails.

The IRS will not initiate contact with taxpayers via email, text messages or social media to request personal or financial information. Regard all unexpected communications you receive purporting to be from the agency as suspicious. Keep these tips in mind when dealing with suspected IRS-themed phishing emails:

• Do not reply.
• Do not preview, open or download attachments.
• Do not click on any links.

For additional advice on dealing with suspected IRS-themed scams, visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing.

Alliant Energy has been named to Newsweek’s 2022 list of America’s Most Responsible Companies. This prestigious list is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. The list, which spans 14 industries, recognizes the top 499 most responsible companies in the United States.

“We are pleased to once again be honored as one of America’s Most Responsible Companies and to have our environmental, social and governance efforts so highly recognized,” said Barbara Tormaschy, vice president and treasurer of Alliant Energy. “Our actions are guided by our values and purpose, which center on serving customers and building stronger communities. We emphasize improving workplace diversity, equity and inclusion and are also proud to be a leader in the transition to generating cleaner sources of energy, such as wind and solar. It’s this combined commitment to our employees, our customers and our environment that earns us placement on this prestigious list.”

Read the full news release

No change to pension plan benefits – just faster, easier ways to get answers.

We are pleased to announce that starting January 1, 2022, Willis Towers Watson will take on the administration of our pension plan. The move will provide faster, more robust customer service and self-service for our retirees in pension, pension-eligible employees and pension-eligible former employees. Additionally, retirees under age 65 will start paying their health/benefits premiums directly to our Benefits Service Center, rather than have them deducted from their pension payment.

For all retirees in pension:

Willis Towers Watson, a leading industry expert in pension administration will take on the customer service responsibilities of our plan. Starting January 3, you will have a dedicated service center, Your Pension Care Team as well as a secure website with helpful tools and self-serve options.

Your Pension Care Team will be your primary contact for pension-related questions and coordinating address, direct deposit and tax withholding changes and the annual Form 1099. You can contact Your Pension Care Team at Willis Towers Watson in one of two ways:

• Your Pension Care Team: Beginning January 3, 2022, you can call 1-844-808-9007 to speak with a representative in our dedicated pension service center. Representatives are available to assist you Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time.
• Online self-service site: Go to eepoint.towerswatson.com/sites/alliant/ess to make any address, direct deposit or tax changes related to your pension benefit and print a pension verification. You can also submit questions to the Your Pension Care Team through the website.

For Under-65 retirees in pension

If you use our health plan and other benefits, starting January 1, 2022, you will need to submit your premium payments to our Alliant Energy Benefits Service Center. Premiums will no longer be deducted from your monthly pension payment.

You’ll have more choice in how you pay your premiums. You can pay by check, make one-time payments online or by phone or set up automatic withdrawal from a bank account.

And, since your premiums won’t come out of your pension payment, your monthly check or deposit will be that much bigger. Please note – health plan benefits, premium amounts, deductibles, coinsurance and all other services remain the same.

For all our retirees, we want to assure you that these updates do not affect your pension plan benefits. We will continue to oversee the pension trust and benefits in the plan. Watch your mailbox for letters with all the details. If you have questions, please call our Benefits Service Center at 1-866-303-1891.