Michigan Public Service Commission has granted a certificate of public necessity to Indiana Michigan Power Co. (I&M) for a 245-megawatt solar energy facility along with related accounting measures requested by the utility (Case No. U-21377).
Today's order approves I&M's application to build the Lake Trout project, a solar generation facility with the capacity to produce enough energy to power approximately 73,500 homes. I&M competitively bid a purchase and sale agreement to build the project in Blackford County, Ind. The Commission grants certificates of necessity that the size, fuel type and design of the facility is the most reasonable and prudent way to meet I&M's power needs, and that the estimated capital costs and financing will be recoverable through customer rates in a future rate case.
The Commission also granted I&M's request for accounting relief, allowing the company to defer as a regulatory asset the incurred project costs once the Lake Trout facility is placed in-service for 30 months and until I&M's base rates are reset to reflect such cost. The Commission approved up to $532 million of total project costs.
According to I&M, construction is scheduled to begin on the Lake Trout facility in fall 2024 and be operational by spring 2026. The Commission in August 2023 approved several I&M solar contracts as part of the utility's agreement in its first Michigan integrated resource plan to procure new carbon-free resources and shore up a 750-megwatt capacity need.
I&M provides electricity to more than 130,000 customers in six counties in southwest Michigan. The Michigan Department of Attorney General intervened in the case, and Wabash Valley Power Association Inc. was granted permissive intervention. MPSC Staff also participated.
COMMISSION TAKES NEXT STEPS IN ADDRESSING RELIABILITY, RESILIENCE OF MICHIGAN'S ELECTRIC GRID
As part of its ongoing work to address significant outages across Michigan, the MPSC today issued new directives to begin immediate work on three critical ways to enable a more reliable and resilient power grid, addressing communication, coordination and data accessibility and effectiveness. (Case No. U-21388). The Commission today directed DTE Electric Co. and Consumers Energy Co. to convene at least one meeting with representatives of local government and emergency response teams in their service territories by March 31, 2024, to focus on improving communication protocols between utilities and local governments during outages and extreme weather events, and to report back to MPSC Staff on learnings and next steps by April 30, 2024. The Commission directed the two utilities to file in this docket by July 1, 2024, a detailed description of their customer communication protocols and strategies and timelines to improve the accuracy of information provided to customers during outage events; the filing should include a description of initial steps taken to develop internal processes to better use available advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data to confirm the restoration of individual customer outages and to coordinate with MPSC Staff on ways to use AMI data for more accurate outage maps with more precise restoration times. Any other interested person may also file comments on these issues no later than July 31, 2024. Additionally, MPSC Staff must file a straw proposal by Dec. 2, 2024, to better align the MPSC's service quality rules and technical standards with the industry requirements for resilience of specific critical facilities.
In a separate but related matter, the MPSC in August sought comment on a straw proposal to establish financial penalties for utilities whose customers experience repeated, lengthy power outages and incentives for improvements as part of the ongoing work of the MI Power Grid Financial Incentives and Disincentives workgroup (Case No. U-21400). The Commission received nearly 300 comments. MPSC Staff filed a revised straw proposal to the docket, and today (Dec 21) the Commission requested initial and reply comments to be made by interested parties by Feb. 2, 2024, and March 2, 2024, respectively. The Commission directed MPSC Staff to convene an engagement session by Feb. 12, 2024, and file a report of the workgroup's findings by May 3, 2024.
MPSC APPROVES REFUNDS FOR CUSTOMERS OF SEMCO ENERGY CO., MICHIGAN GAS UTILITIES CORP.
The MPSC today approved refunds to customers of two Michigan natural gas utilities to pass on lower costs of natural gas transportation. Both SEMCO Energy Co. and Michigan Gas Utilities Corp. (MGU) received refunds from the Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co. (PEPL) after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final order in November on a requested rate increase from PEPL in August 2019, resulting in PEPL being directed to refund the difference between interim rates and final FERC-approved rates. The Commission approved a refund of $5,666,468.92 for for customers of SEMCO Energy (Case No U-21516), resulting in an average residential customer receiving a total refund of $12.85, and a refund of $3,268,863.04 for customers of MGU (Case No. U-21517) resulting in an average residential customer receiving a total refund of $14.21. The customer-class bill credits will appear on customer bills between January and March 2024.
COMMISSION APPROVES UTILITY VOLUNTARY GREEN PRICING PROGRAMS
The MPSC today approved several orders on utilities' voluntary green pricing (VGP) programs, which allow customers to voluntarily specify a certain amount of electricity purchases to be from renewable energy resources, with costs of the programs billed to participating customers. The Commission approved:
- Alpena Power Co.'s application for approval of its VGP program, which remains the same as the company's previous VGP program approved by the MSPC (Case No. U-18350).
- A settlement agreement between MPSC Staff and Indiana Michigan Power Co. on the utility's application for approval of its GoGreen Local Surcharge and GoGreen Local Credit and new offerings for its VGP program to its VGP tariff (Case No. U-18353).
- Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp.'s VGP program, which remains unchanged from previously approved programs (Case No. U-18356).
- Upper Peninsula Power Co.'s VGP program, unchanged from its previously approved program (Case No. U-21152).
- Northern States Power Co.'s VGP program, unchanged from its previously approved program (Case No. U-21173).
MSPC EXTENDS WORK OF ENERGY AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY COLLABORATIVE THROUGH 2024
The Commission ordered that the ongoing work of the MPSC's Energy Affordability and Accessibility Collaborative (EAAC), launched as part of the Commission's review of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, be extended to continue through the 2024 calendar year to address matters including making recommendations on potentially permanent percentage of income payment plans for low-income customers (Case No. U-20757). Today's order reviews the MPSC Staff's March 16, 2023, report and recommendations which focused on areas including customer access to utility service, consumer protections and affordability and assistance issues as well as comments from EAAC participants and others.
MPSC COMPLETES RESPONSE TO PETITIONS FOR REHEARING IN EXAMINATION OF CUSTOMER ENERGY DATA AND CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION IN ENERGY TRANSITION
The MPSC today finalized its answer to a petition for rehearing sought by the state's largest utilities in a case examining best practices for customer energy data issues (Case No. U-20959). The Commission in April 2023 granted a rehearing sought by DTE Electric Co. and DTE Gas Co., filing jointly along with Consumer Energy Co., in the MI Power Grid Customer Education and Participation (CE&P) workgroup's continued exploration of how to best provide safe access to customer energy data, balance the availability of that data with customer privacy, and promote customer engagement with the transition to clean energy. Today's order considers comments entered in the docket in response to the April 2023 order and MPSC Staff's recommendations, and takes steps to increase customer data transparency. The order completes the Commission's response to the petitions for rehearing.
COMMISSION OKS CONSUMERS ENERGY WORKPLAN FOR EXPEDITED REVIEW OF PILOT PROGRAMS
The Commission today approved Consumers Energy Co.'s expedited pilot review workplan and permitted the company to file proposals for individual pilot programs for expedited Commission consideration (Case No. U-21500). Speedier review of pilot programs was an outgrowth of the MPSC's MI Power Grid effort to maximize the benefits of the transition to clean, distributed energy resources for Michigan residents and businesses. The MI Power Grid New Technologies and Business Models stakeholder workgroup's recommendations included expedited review of pilot programs, and the Commission adopted a voluntary expedited review process in February 2023.
COMMISSION GRANTS TEMPORARY WAIVERS FROM REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES
The MPSC granted temporary waivers from certain reporting requirements on service quality and reliability standards for a group of electric cooperatives currently unable to report the data because they lack technological or other capabilities (Case No. U-21509). Today's order grants a waiver for Alger Delta Cooperative Electric Association; Cherryland Electric Cooperative; Great Lakes Energy Cooperative; Homeworks Tri-County Electric Cooperative: Midwest Energy & Communications; Ontonagon County REA; Presque Isle Electric & Gas Co-op, and Thumb Electric Cooperative, until Dec. 31, 2024, of the of the reporting requirements contained in several sections of Mich Admin Code, R 460.732. The Commission also granted the co-operatives a waiver of the reporting requirement contained in Mich Admin Code, R 460.732(r) until Dec. 31, 2029.
To look up cases from today's meeting, access the MPSC's E-Dockets filing system.
DISCLAIMER: This document was prepared to aid the public's understanding of certain matters before the Commission and is not intended to modify, supplement, or be a substitute for the Commission's orders. The Commission's orders are the official action of the Commission.
News media contact: Matt Helms 517-284-8300
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