Consumers Energy says it will delay plans to build Bay County power plant

Consumers Energy delays Bay County power plant

HAMPTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Consumers Energy on Thursday put on hold its plans to build a new coal-fired power plant in Michigan’s Bay County.

Utility officials said the indefinite delay is caused by a number of factors including reduced customer demand for electricity and expected lower prices for natural gas due to recent developments in shale gas recovery technology.

The utility said the project is not being canceled, but the time frame for the delay has not been specified. Consumers had planned to have the $2 billion, 830-megawatt power plant on line by 2017.

“We continue to believe that new clean coal generating capacity will be in the long-term best interests of our 1.8 million electric customers as part of a balanced energy portfolio, but the current timetable for the new unit isn’t consistent with today’s market conditions,” John Russell, the president of Jackson-based Consumers Energy and its parent company CMS Energy, said in a statement.

The power plant won a key environmental permit from state regulators late last year despite the objections of environmental groups.

Opponents of the project claimed Thursday’s decision as a victory.

“Investors are rejecting coal plants all across the country as a bad investment and now Michigan must follow the markets and make a much stronger commitment to energy efficiency, wind, solar and other forms of clean energy…,” Anne Woiwode, director of the Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter, said in a statement.