MPSC Authorizes Consumer Energy Co. Deal With Saline Battery Electric Storage Plant

The Michigan Public Service Commission today approved an application by Consumers Energy Co. for a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Voyager Energy Storage LLC for a 100-megawatt battery energy storage facility in Washtenaw County’s Saline Township (Case No. U-21090).

The total 20-year lifetime cost of the PPA is about $404 million with a fixed energy payment of $14.54 per megawatt hour, for the plant’s capacity, energy, renewable energy credits, and environmental attributes.

Consumers Energy, as part of a 2022 settlement agreement on its integrated resource plan (IRP), agreed to speed up deployment of energy storage resources to shore up reserves of Michigan’s energy supplies. Energy storage is a critical part of the clean energy transition, allowing electricity from renewable energy sources to be stored for use during times of higher demand, helping keep costs down when electricity is most expensive to produce.

The company issued requests for proposals for capacity of up to 700 zonal resource credits, or ZRCs. ZRCs are units of electricity capacity used by members of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which operates the transmission grid in Michigan, 14 other states and Canada’s province of Manitoba, to demonstrate resource adequacy to meet electricity demand. One MISO ZRC represents 1 megawatt of seasonal accredited capacity.

The Commission noted that today’s order does not grant approval or pre-approval to increase customer rates or charges or for cost recovery of the PPA; nor does the order determine reasonableness or prudence of the PPA’s costs beyond its consistency with Consumers’ approved IRP, its long-range plan for providing electricity to customers.

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