Consumers Energy will stop using coal-fired generation in 2025 under a settlement announced Wednesday over its integrated resource plan.
CMS Energy’s (NYSE: CMS) Consumers filed its IRP with the Michigan Public Service Commission last June (Case No. U-21090).
Under the agreement with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan and the Sierra Club, Consumers agreed to close all three units at the J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive (1,388 MW) in 2025 in addition to two units it previously agreed to close at the D.E. Karn coal plant in 2023 (487 MW).
The deal makes Consumers, which got almost 35% of its power from coal last year, “among the first utilities in the nation to go coal-free by 2025,” the company said. The IRP would ensure its use of “90% clean energy resources by 2040.”
Under the IRP, Consumers, which provides natural gas or electricity to 6.8 million of the Michigan’s 10 million residents, will also:
- retire Karn units 3 and 4, gas peaking plants totaling 934 MW, by May 31, 2031, unless they are needed for reliability;
- acquire the 1,176-MW Covert natural gas generating plant in Van Buren County. The company agreed to drop its request to purchase three other gas-fired units: Dearborn Industrial Generation in Wayne County; Kalamazoo River Generating Station in Kalamazoo County; and Livingston Generating Station in Otsego County.
- add nearly 8,000 MW of solar generation by 2040;
- accelerate energy storage deployment, with 75 MW of energy storage by 2027, rising to 550 MW by 2040;
- conduct a one-time competitive solicitation to provide the company with capacity credit in MISO Zone 7 starting in the 2025 planning year.
“Consumers Energy is committed to a just transition away from coal as a fuel source for electricity,” Brandon Hofmeister, senior vice president for governmental, regulatory and public affairs, said in a statement last June when the company announced its plan to end coal use. “We supported employees and communities impacted by our 2016 coal retirements by finding new roles for workers who wanted to stay, fulfilling our environmental responsibilities at the sites and helping local leaders pursue new economic possibilities. We plan to follow the same philosophy to help those affected by the proposed Campbell and Karn retirements.”
The deal must be approved by the PSC.
“The Michigan Public Service Commission should approve this settlement so Consumers Energy can get to work moving beyond coal by 2025, planning for worker transitions and building out a remarkable amount of clean energy,” said Mike Berkowitz, senior Michigan representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “This is a groundbreaking agreement that ensures Consumers Energy is meeting the urgency demanded by the climate crisis while creating homegrown green jobs. West Michiganders can breathe easier knowing the J.H. Campbell coal plant will soon stop polluting their air as well as Pigeon Lake, a tributary to Lake Michigan.”
