LANSING – The estimated renewable energy percentage is expected to exceed the 10 percent requirement, a report released Friday by the Public Service Commission shows.

The PSC’s sixth annual report on the implementation of the state’s renewable energy standard of 10 percent by 2015 showed already 9.1 percent of the state’s electricity had been generated from renewable sources in 2014, up from 7.8 percent in 2013.

DTE Electric had filed the most renewable energy contracts with the PSC, totaling 990 megawatts. Consumers Energy was not very far behind, though, as it had filed 604 megawatts-worth of renewable energy contracts with the commission. Consumers reduced its renewable energy surcharge to zero for all customers in July 2014, though, while Alpena Power Company and DTE Electric would follow suit effective July 2015 and December 2015, respectively.

And at the end of 2015, both utilities had obtained PSC approval of power purchase agreements and company-owned renewable energy projects providing the necessary capacity to exceed to the 2015 legislative requirement, the PSC said in a statement.

All told, about 2,500 megawatts of renewable energy generators are operating in Michigan and registered with the Michigan Renewable Energy Certification System, the PSC found. And there had been significant growth of wind generation in the state’s REC portfolio, from 7 percent in 2009 (the year after the legislative mandate) to 44 percent in 2014.

The PSC had also determined that through the second quarter of 2015, a cluster workforce analysis by the Michigan Workforce Development Agency in partnership with the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives showed 8,750 jobs among Michigan industries related to the renewable and alternative energy cluster – up from 6,775 such jobs in 2005.

And the actual cost of renewable energy contracts submitted to the PSC to date continues to show a downward pricing trend, the PSC said. For example, a recent contract approved by the PSC for new wind capacity has levelized costs lower than $45 per megawatt, about 10 percent less than the least expensive contract prices from 2011 and half the levelized cost of the first few renewable energy contracts approved in 2009 and 2010.

For 2016 and each year thereafter, state law requires electric providers to maintain the same amount of renewable energy credits needed to meet the standard in 2015 – something renewable energy proponents and especially legislative Democrats have been pushing to change as energy law update discussions continue.

WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY: The Public Service Commission has also recently approved a settlement agreement authorizing WEPCo to implement its amended renewable energy plan, resulting in an increase of about 97 cents per residential customer on their monthly bills, effective with the next billing cycle (Case U-17798).

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