LANSING, MI (WHTC) – Just how reliable is Michigan’s power grid?
That’s a question that the Michigan Agency of Energy and the Michigan Public Service Commission wants an answer to. The two entities have asked the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the regional transmission operator for most of the state, to conduct a study that would help state officials better understand the effect of plant closures on Michigan’s overall electric reliability.
In particular, the MAE and the MPSC wants the MISO to assess the vulnerabilities associated with simultaneous planned or unplanned outages at the Palisades nuclear power plant near Covert and the Fermi Two nuclear facility near Monroe that can generate a combined total of 18-hundred-55 megawatts. Anti-nuclear activists have vigorously campaigned for the closure of those two plants in recent years, citing age and operational concerns.
Based on the MPSC’s recent five-year outlook, the agency is concerned that the Lower Peninsula doesn’t have the adequate electric capacity to meet electric reliability requirements in “a few years,” according to a statement by the agency. Power reserve margins are expected to decline by 2018 in both the state and the region.
