LANSING – Payments made to the regional electric operator overseeing Michigan’s power to keep the White Pine electric generator in the Upper Peninsula running will be eliminated within 90 days, the Michigan Agency for Energy said Thursday, saving UP electric ratepayers about $7 million a year through June 2018.

Customers of Upper Peninsula Power Company, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, Cloverland Electric Cooperative, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Ontonagon County REA, Constellation AES, Alger Delta Cooperative, Marquette Board of Light and Power, and the municipalities of WPPI Energy will benefit from the elimination of the payments, the MAE said.

Near the end of July, the MAE expressed support for a plan by the American Transmission Company that would eliminate said payments, known as system support resource payments (See Gongwer Michigan Report, July 27, 2016). The purpose of the payments, effectively, is to keep a particular facility running so the Midcontinent Independent System Operator – which oversees power usage across numerous states including Michigan – can use the power generated from a facility to stabilize electric supply across those states.

Thursday, MISO filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to terminate the SSR designation for the 20-megawatt White Pine Unit 1 electric generator in the northwest UP because of an alternative solution proposed back in July by the American Transmission Company. If FERC approves, the payments would be eliminated within 90 days of MISO’s filing.

“The White Pine SSR payment will be eliminated by late November, avoiding future SSR costs of potentially $12 million and resulting in more cost-effective system reliability in the Upper Peninsula,” Valerie Brader, MAE executive director, said in a statement. “Currently, when the White Pine unit goes down unexpectedly – as it did frequently during the summer of 2015 – there is a higher reliability risk. The new solution greatly reduces the risk of a catastrophic loss of power in the northwestern UP. For planned maintenance outages, ATC has already shown willingness and the ability to adjust work schedules to protect electric reliability.”

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