Advertisement
By BF Staff
From the July/August 2022 Issue
Consumers Energy is moving forward with a landmark energy transformation plan that will reshape Michigan’s future. A key regulatory decision in June 2022 cleared the way for Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, to stop burning coal to generate electricity by 2025. That’s 15 years faster than previously planned.
“This is a historic moment in Michigan’s clean energy transformation journey,” said Garrick Rochow, President and CEO of Consumers Energy. “The Clean Energy Plan is a sea change that positions our company as a national leader and empowers us to deliver reliable energy while protecting the planet for decades to come.”
Consumers Energy’s Clean Energy Plan includes several important steps:
- Coal Plant Retirements By 2025. Consumers Energy will close all five units at its Campbell and Karn coal plants and will be among the first utilities in the nation to go coal-free by 2025.
- System Reliability. Consumers Energy is purchasing the natural gas-fired Covert Generating Station in Southwest Michigan to ensure it has a reliable supply of around-the-clock energy for its nearly two million electric customers. The company also plans to purchase 700 megawatts of electric capacity—roughly the equivalent of a power plant—sources through a one-time request for proposal.
- Rise of Solar: The rapid transition to clean, renewable energy sources will continue with nearly 8,000 megawatts of solar power by 2040. That will ensure 90% of Consumers Energy’s electric capacity comes from clean sources (Learn more at ConsumersEnergy.com/MiSolar).
- Battery Deployment. Accelerates energy storage with a total of 75 megawatts of energy storage by 2027, achieving 550 MW by 2040.
- Affordable Energy. Customers will save a projected $600 million through 2040. Consumers Energy would also continue its successful energy waste reduction programs that have saved customers nearly $5 billion since 2009. In addition, the company has committed to continue to fund assistance programs for low-income customers.
Driving Michigan’s EV Future
Powering the state that helped put the world on wheels, Consumers Energy also is powering an electric vehicle (EV) future. Over the next two years, Consumers Energy plans to add 200 public charging locations. Already, the company has powered over 2,000 EV chargers in homes and businesses across Michigan. In fact, they’ve set a goal to power up to one million EVs on Michigan roads by 2030.
“We’re working hard with state and local partners to ensure Michigan leads the way in charging infrastructure availability,” said Valerie Christofferson, Consumers Energy’s director of economic development. “We want to ease our customers’ transitions to EVs.”
As automakers continue to make bold all-electric commitments, Michigan drivers can count on Consumers Energy to help customers make the EV transition simple and value-driven via its PowerMIDrive and PowerMIFleet programs.
- PowerMIDrive helps make the switch to EVs more affordable and can also provide residential and municipal customers with information about EV charging systems, off-peak charging cost savings, and residential, business and public EV charging rebates.
- PowerMIFleet offers business fleet customers independent consulting services to help evaluate adding EVs and EV charging systems (including workplace Level 2 and fast chargers) to their business operations, in addition to the many financial benefits available from Consumers Energy for charging off-peak.
Investing In Michigan’s Future
Consumers Energy, a 2022 Editor’s Pick Top Utility with Business Facilities, continues its Purpose: World Class Performance Delivering Hometown Service. The company measures success through its Triple Bottom Line—People, Planet and Profit.
And the energy provider strives to deliver every single day when it comes to customer service. That means having an eye toward the future and any emergent technology that might help provide customers safe, reliable and cleaner energy. Two examples include:
- A new innovative economic development rate, intended to attract both new business to Michigan and encourage existing businesses to expand their operations, along with a historic $1 billion in funding for new state incentives signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in December 2021 to generate job growth in Michigan.
- Investing $5.4 billion over the next five years in electric and natural gas infrastructure to improve reliability—and customers’ lives. The Electric Distribution Infrastructure Investment Plan is a blueprint for reliably serving Michigan today and innovating to meet the challenges of the coming decades.
“Together, we’ve created the best Clean Energy Plan for Michigan,” Rochow said. “We’re building a dramatically different energy landscape in which customers won’t have to choose between protecting the planet and their pocketbooks. We will do both while making sure our state has the reliable power it needs.”
Learn more about the new innovative economic development rate, available certified energy ready sites and opportunities to partner with Consumers Energy and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation at ConsumersEnergy.com/econdev.
