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While the MPSC was in Detroit for the energy law hearing, Commissioners and MPSC Staff also met with local organizations to hear about the work they’re doing to improve their communities and the concerns they have about energy service and affordability.
Commissioners met with representatives of We Want Green, Too, a nonprofit on Detroit’s east side that’s focused on helping military veterans create and sustain healthy lives after they return home from war, with an emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. The organization’s work includes helping veterans and community members build environmental literacy and obtain training in green jobs to become leaders of the emerging green economy. Commissioners toured the organization’s test home where home energy efficiency training takes place.
The MPSC also met with Shamayim “Mama Shu” Harris, founder of Avalon Village in Highland Park, who’s working to redevelop vacant, blighted land into a safe, nurturing, uplifting and healing space on a block of Avalon Street west of Woodward Avenue.
A new study conducted for the MPSC by Enercon Services East PC finds that nuclear energy could play a major role in Michigan’s requirement to have 100% of its electrical generation from clean sources by 2040, but issues including the significant expense of new nuclear power, siting challenges and unresolved questions about the storage of nuclear waste have to be considered.
Highlights of the Michigan Nuclear Feasibility Study, conducted at the behest of the Michigan Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Public Acts 166 and 218 of 2022, include:
- A hypothetical new nuclear plant built in Ottawa County or Monroe County would create an estimated $3.6 billion to $3.7 billion in economic benefit and 719 to 777 long term jobs for the duration of the plant’s operation.
- A hypothetical new nuclear plant in DTE Electric Co.’s territory in southeast Michigan could result in an estimated annual reduction of 365,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 62 tons of sulfur dioxide and 140 tons of nitric oxide. A hypothetical plant in Consumers Energy’s territory could reduce annual emissions by 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, 6.2 tons of sulfur dioxide and 197 tons of nitric oxide.
- Continuing existing nuclear power generation will be necessary for the state to meet its carbon-free energy goals cost-effectively. And for new nuclear, while costs for building nuclear capacity in Michigan may be high, some of the costs may be recouped through long-term economic impacts in local economies and increased tax payments.
Additional information about the MPSC’s work on this matter can be found at the Commission’s Nuclear Feasibility Study webpage.
April is Safe Digging Month, and the MPSC reminds Michiganders that any project that involves digging — from backyard improvements to major commercial work — requires a call to MISS DIG 811 first. It’s the law.
MISS DIG is the statewide underground utility safety notification system, and anyone planning to dig — whether you’re an excavator, landscaper, farmer, contractor or homeowner — should call 811 at least three days in advance so that MISS DIG can have buried utility lines marked for safety. You can also contact MISS DIG at its website, missdig811.org.
MISS DIG uses color-coded flags, stakes, and paint to mark energy and communications lines, water and sewer lines and the like so that you can avoid damaging them and possibly causing injury, death, and loss of vital services to your neighborhood.
With spring officially here, the MPSC brings focus on emergency preparedness, particularly on getting ready for the warm-weather storm season that can lead to power outages.
We’ve got lots of resources that can help you make sure your family is ready in case of severe weather and power outages:
Among other actions at Commission meetings in March, the MPSC:
- Rejected early termination of two Consumers Energy power purchase agreements for electricity produced at two northern Michigan biomass plants, finding that ending the contracts prematurely was not holistically considered in the state’s electric capacity planning, posing a potential risk, and that calculated savings may be overestimated (Case No. U-20946).
- Approved several renewable energy projects called for in the long-range integrated resource plans of Michigan electric utilities, supporting the state’s clean energy transition. Among them was DTE Electric Co.’s application for approval of contracts associated with its Trenton Channel Storage Project (Case No. U-21566), an authorization that came the same day that the utility demolished two smokestacks at its retired Trenton Channel coal-fired power plant in Wayne County. DTE Electric will construct a 220 megawatt/800 megawatt-hour lithium iron-phosphate battery energy storage system at the site of the former Trenton Channel plant.
- Approved DTE Electric’s application for approval of the reconciliation of its power supply costs recovery (PSCR) expenses and revenues for 2021 (Case No. U-20827), rejecting $2.7 million in costs the company sought to recover from outages at generating facilities. The Commission set DTE Electric’s PSCR reconciliation beginning balance at a net underrecovery of $139,496,628, including interest.
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