The Balanced Energy Initiative
Planning for Affordable and Reliable Electricity to Meet Michigan's Future Energy Needs
Consumers Energy unveiled its comprehensive plan to meet the energy needs of its 1.8 million Michigan electric customers for the next 20 years.
The utility’s plan called “The Balanced Energy Initiative” calls for meeting the growing customer demand for electricity with:
- Energy efficiency
- Demand management
- Expanding renewable energy
- Developing new power plants
- Utilizing existing generating resources
The Balanced Energy Initiative is designed to help maintain affordable and reliable supplies of electricity for Michigan’s families and businesses.
The Balanced Energy Initiative outlines potential investments in major new power plants, offering significant economic development benefits.
The substantial investments make Consumers Energy one of the largest – if not the largest – investor in the state of Michigan. Those investments will help the utility maintain and improve service to customers, create jobs, boost the state’s economy and expand the state’s tax base.
Consumers Energy originally filed its Balanced Energy Initiative Plan with the Michigan Public Service Commission on May 1, 2007. The Balanced Energy Initiative outlines the company’s balanced approach to meeting the long-term energy needs of its customers. The Balanced Energy Initiative strategy is designed to provide customers with reliable and competitively priced electricity in an environmentally responsible manner while considering the risks from volatile fuel and energy market prices, future environmental regulations, and technological developments.
Based on the Balanced Energy Initiative, Consumers Energy filed an analysis of electric generation needs and alternatives with the Michigan Public Service Commission and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as a part of the air permit process for the new clean coal plant. The primary conclusions were:
- Even with an historically low peak load growth assumption of 0.3 percent per year for the company’s service territory and implementation of relatively aggressive energy efficiency, demand management and renewable resource programs, there is a need for new electric generation to meet the company’s projected customer demand.
- Almost two-thirds of the company’s projected resource needs through 2018 will be met with new renewable energy resources and peak load reductions associated with new energy efficiency programs and demand management.
- The company has evaluated a range of coal technologies as well as various renewable and low emitting technologies. The company has incorporated a number of these sources in its balanced approach to meeting the energy needs of its customers, and the analysis demonstrates that the proposed advanced supercritical pulverized coal technology represents a cost effective, efficient and reliable resource compared to other alternatives.
- Eventually replacing several of the company’s older, less efficient plants with an advanced supercritical pulverized coal plant significantly will reduce the company’s system-wide emissions and will have a positive impact on the air quality in Michigan.
- The company’s capacity mix is currently well balanced and the construction of a new clean coal facility in conjunction with the potential retirement of several of the company’s oldest coal plants will maintain a balanced and diverse capacity mix as well as reduce the fleet’s overall environmental footprint.
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Highlights of the Balanced Energy Initiative
Economic Development Benefits
Implementing the Balanced Energy Initiative
Consumers Energy Investment
Serving Michigan Since 1886
Highlights of the Balanced Energy Initiative
The highlights of the Balanced Energy Initiative are:
- That all customers in the state can benefit from a well-designed, cost-effective, energy efficiency program
- The Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program will enable new energy programs to help customers lower their energy bills while reducing peak demand. Under a load management program, customers will receive a reduced electric rate in exchange for giving Consumers Energy permission to cycle their air conditioners during periods of peak electric demand. With a demand response program, customers will pay different electric rates at different times of the day. By taking active control of when they use energy, customers will have the opportunity to pay lower rates for electricity. Currently, Consumers Energy is evaluating both programs to further identify customer benefits
- The addition of 900 MW of renewable energy, primarily wind, by the end of 2017 will enhance the company’s balanced approach to meeting its customer energy demands
- The purchase of the Zeeland Generation Station in late 2007 which resulted in an additional 868 MW of gas-fired capacity;
- Constructing a new 830 megawatt clean coal generating facility on an existing Consumers Energy site and having it in operation in 2017. The expectation is that municipal utilities or other parties would own 311 megawatts of that plant, which would use state-of-the-art emissions controls.
Economic Development Benefits
The Balanced Energy Initiative will provide significant economic development benefits for Michigan. The new power plants described in the Balanced Energy Initiative represent an investment of more than $2 billion in the state’s infrastructure.
- Building those energy supplies will create a couple thousand good-paying construction jobs for highly skilled workers and hundreds of other in-direct jobs in the community
- There also would be several hundred ongoing, good-paying jobs to operate and maintain the plants once they’re built
- Local communities and the state also would receive the benefits of an expanded tax base from these significant investments
- Michigan’s growing alternative energy manufacturing sector requires reliable and affordable energy
- Michigan also will have the power it needs to fuel future economic growth as it rebounds, especially new base-load power for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, for example, which will need precious “fuel” to lead the auto industry’s comeback.
The expansion of renewable energy sources, as described by the Balanced Energy Initiative, also has the potential to create jobs and strengthen the state’s economy.
Implementing the Balanced Energy Initiative
To fully implement the Balanced Energy Initiative, Consumers Energy supported the energy policy, which was passed by the Michigan legislature and signed by the Governor in October, 2008. The legislation included:
- Reform of the state’s electric choice law (PA 141)
- A new, up-front certification policy for major baseload power plant investments, giving the MPSC oversight of:
- Project design features
- Environmental controls
- Construction plans
- Costs
- The policy requires competitive bidding for the engineering, procurement, and construction contracts of a new power plant. Those three areas typically make up about 85 percent of the cost of new power plant
- A renewable portfolio standard requiring Consumers Energy to have 10 percent of its energy supply come from renewable energy sources by 2015
- Implementation of a new energy efficiency program
Consumers Energy Investment
The initiative also signals our commitment to:
- Continued investment in Michigan
- Improve electric distribution reliability
- Meet environmental standards
- Invest in technology to:
- Improve customer service
- Actively manage electric demand
- Invest in needed new power plants in Michigan
Serving Michigan Since 1886
Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, provides natural gas and electricity to nearly 6.5 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
Our employees work hard to keep rates competitive, ensure high levels of customer satisfaction, and provide reliable utility service to our customers.
