LANSING – Michigan electric customers during the years 2022 and 2023 should enjoy an adequate supply of power, according to the Public Service Commission.
Commission officials said Thursday that all electric providers in the state successfully demonstrated to the PSC they had adequate supplies to customer needs in the 2022-23 planning year.
The commission annually reviews suppliers’ arrangements and other preparations to provide electricity to customers over the long-term. Every provider – investor-owned utility, municipal utility, cooperative and alternate supplier – is required to prove they either own or have contracts for sufficient capacity to meet projected customer needs.
And the capacity levels must meet the obligations set either by the PSC or the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and PJM Interconnection LLS in which the state participates.
Under the 2016 utilities act the projection must be for four years ahead.
In reviewing the projections from the state’s electric providers, PSC officials said, the MISO Local Resource Zone 7 – which is most of the state’s Lower Peninsula – will meet that group’s requirements for 2022-23 by 1,300 megawatts. The MISO zones covering the Upper Peninsula will also have sufficient capacity and the southwest corner of Michigan, covered by the PJM group, will have enough capacity.
Electric demand is expected to increase in 2022-23, according to PSC staff forecasts.
The PSC also rescinded a ban it had set on electric aggregators bidding on demand response in wholesale markets. But it maintained a ban it had established against retail customers participating directly in the wholesale markets.
This story was published by Gongwer News Service.
