MSCPA members move to install local generation

COLDWATER — Less than a month after cancelling a 50 megawatt gas turbine generator off Fiske Road in Coldwater, municipal members of the Michigan South Central Power Agency voted to seek approval from its four-member boards and councils to install seven bio-diesel generators totaling 59.3 megawatts in its four-member communities.

After a closed session, representatives of Coldwater, Clinton, Hillsdale and Marshall instructed the MSCPA manager to execute contracts for the units, contingent upon local approvals.

Manager Pam Sullivan, from American Municipal Power, was also instructed to hire engineers to do an economic and technical analysis for the seven sites.

Lawyers will also prepare necessary documents for each community and for the projects to be managed by the power agency.

The timeline to complete the projects is the summer of 2024 to meet capacity and power demands of agency members.

The natural gas generator planned for Coldwater was scrapped after costs skyrocketed from the original estimated price of $35 million to over $55 million, up 35% in the past 18 months.

The project was delayed almost three years waiting for the Midcontinent Independent System Operator of the grid to complete studies of the cost to upgrade transmission to handle the new project.

In November, MISO said the Coldwater project would require $4 million in upgrades.

MoreCBPU cancels plans for high-cost 50 MW natural gas generator

These seven generators will not be connected directly to the grid, but be “behind the meter,” in the community. Sullivan said this will avoid MISO connection grid cost upgrades.

Coldwater Board of Public Utilities manager Paul Jakubczak said the big saving is to avoid the penalty cost of not having capacity to meet member needs.

“A bonus is if we do lose transmission then these, along with other generation we have, would be able to start up and provide at least some power” for the local communities, Jakubczak said.

MSCPA chair David Mackie, the Hillsdale city manager, said for Hillsdale there would be enough to provide almost all the city’s power needs.

The problem, according to Jakubczak, is trying to predict future power costs. With wind and solar coming on line but coal plants closing, it's hard to predict near future costs versus long term costs. With the new units financed over 20 to 30 years.

“We have to look at what is best for our customers,” he said.

“With nobody building any units, over the next three to five years, (power costs) are going to be high priced,” Clinton city manager Kevin Cornish said.

Plans call for a 3.1 MW generator at Clinton’s public works center. Coldwater will install 15 MW at Michigan Avenue and State Road where MSCPA once located diesel oil generators. Another 7.5 MW would go in at the Hooker Street substation at the old power plant. Hillsdale would install two 7.5 MW units in its service center and in the city industrial park. Marshall would install 15 MW at its Brooks substation and 3.7 MW at its south substation.

Only Clinton does not have any behind-the-meter generation currently.

Hillsdale owns a 5.5 and a 5.3 MW piston generator now licensed to operate.

Marshall operates three piston generators, rated at 5.6 MW, 1.5 MW, and 1.4 MW. There is also 100,000 kilowatts from its dam on the Kalamazoo River.

Coldwater owns a 13.2 MW natural gas piston plant next to the Mastronardi greenhouse. The solar farm at the Marmon property off Hooker Street is rated at .8 MW.

These total current generators are 33.8 MW of the 138.79 MW capacity members have for power needs for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Estimates of power capacity needs for agency members are 156.8 MW for both summer and winter. While peak loads come for Clinton, Hillsdale, and Marshall during the summers, because of the Mastronardi greenhouses, Coldwater’s peak is during the winter. This balances out capacity for the MSCPA members.

The agency has other power resources in MISO totaling 25.1 MW counted toward capacity. It has recently purchased 30 MW of solar power in Hart and 25 MW of power capacity purchased from a battery storage plant to be constructed north of Coldwater.

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With the new units, MSCPA would own 170.57 MW of in state capacity preventing it from paying a capacity surcharge for imported power bought off the grid.

This surcharge, based on the cost of new construction to encourage new power plants, can run into the millions each year for members.

Actual cost analysis will go to the power boards and city councils after engineers complete their work.

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: MSCPA members move to install local generation with seven generator in four communities