A report by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the nonprofit organization that oversees our power grid, said Michigan could be facing power shortages in July and August.
Michigan is moving away from coal or thermal powered electricity and the state is pressing to use more and more wind and solar power.
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“The reality for the zones that do not have sufficient generation to cover their load, plus their required reserves, is that they will have increased risk of temporary, controlled outages to maintain system reliability,” MISO’s CEO said.
Local 4 also spoke with Tradition Energy Analyst Gary Cunningham.
“This time we’ve had even more retirements of old generators, and we’re not building enough new ones. The ones that we are building, to be candid, the intermittent wind and solar, are not always there when we need them,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said from a consumer perspective, those zones may also face higher costs to procure power when it is scarce.
Cunningham said an example can be found on your DTE Energy or Consumers Energy bill, where you’ll find a capacity charge. Customers might pay $1 a month now, but when the summer hits, it’s likely to go up to $5 or even $10.
DTE Energy and Consumers have both said they are confident they will have plenty of power this summer.
“Serving Michigan homes and businesses with reliable energy is job #1. This summer is no different: Customers across Michigan can count on us to deliver reliable energy. As we continue the transition to cleaner, renewable fuel sources for electricity such as wind and solar, the natural gas plants in our portfolio make sure that stable, reliable, on-demand electricity is available when sources like renewables and other intermittent sources are not available. With Consumers Energy’s diverse mix of energy sources, we are confident we have reliable energy sources to meet customer demand in 2022 and beyond.”
Katie Carey Director of External Relations for CMS Energy & Consumers Energy
Katie Carey, the Director of External Relations for CMS Energy and Consumers Energy said their internal experts use “powerful modeling software to predict how the energy landscape will look in the short-term and in the coming decades by considering a wide variety of future scenarios and assumptions about factors such as market prices, energy demand and levels of clean energy resources, including wind, solar, demand response and energy efficiency. This allows us to reliably forecast how much energy Michigan’s homes and businesses need.”
“DTE works closely with MISO to ensure our customers have the dependable energy they need to live, work and learn every day, all year long. We’re ready to serve our customers, even during the hottest days of summer, and have extensive preparedness plans in place in the event of a regional MISO issue.
“Our focus continues to be on providing clean and reliable electricity to the residents of southeast Michigan. As we work to transition our generation fleet from coal to cleaner sources of energy like natural gas and renewables, we’ll be retiring two of our coal plants and bringing our new Blue Water Energy Center online in June to ensure we always have the power required to meet our customers’ energy needs. In addition, DTE also has a large number of customers on voluntary interruptible rates that can be curtailed, if needed, to maintain system reliability.”
DTE Energy Director Jill M. Wilmot
Click here to read the full press release from MISO.