Michigan regulators on October 25 gave their support to Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp.’s (UMERC) plan for two new natural gas-fired plants in the state’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.). The plants approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) would be built in Baraga and Negaunee townships.

The plants are designed to produce a combined 183 MW of generation. Construction could begin by year-end, and the current schedule calls for both plants to begin operating in 2019. Electricity from the two facilities would partly replace generation from We Energies’ 359-MW Presque Isle Power Plant on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan, where the last five coal-fired units are scheduled to close in 2020.

The first of the five remaining units (Units 5 through 9) at Presque Isle begin operating in 1974; the last of those five came online in 1979. Units 1 and 2 at Presque Isle were retired in 2007, and Units 3 and 4 were closed in 2009.

The new gas-fired plants have a combined price tag of $ 277 million.…

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