Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JAN TUCKER
White Pine — The Michigan Attorney General and Michigan Agency for Energy have rejected a protest by the White Pine Power Company about the elimination of the System Support Resolution for the power plant agreement.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator has announced it will terminate the agreement on Nov. 26. The issue now moves on to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a final decision.
The Michigan Agency for Energy document said MISO is not required to seek White Pine’s request to terminate the agreement since there is a longstanding request from several years ago to retire the plant.
In making its conclusions, the agency stated, “We believe the cancellation of the SSR agreement with White Pine is not just legal, it is the right thing to do for Michigan’s citizens.”
The document claims the reconfiguration which MISO has devised will not jeopardize reliability, will lower costs and protect the environment.
The document says a “couple” stakeholders raised concerns that the resulting configuration introduces the risk of “consequential load loss, to which MISO responded that “consequential load loss during planned outages is permitted according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and local planning criteria.”
In addition, the document claims the SSR was granted for planned outages, not unplanned outages.
“White Pine Unit 1 was not and is not designated as an SSR to avoid the reliability consequences of unplanned outages,” it states.
The White Pine protest notes MISO has called on the plant to cope with unplanned outages, such as the dam flooding in Marquette and other weather events in the U.P. The state agency answered that whether MISO has ever called upon White Pine during an unplanned outage is “not relevant for determination of whether White Pine should retain SSR status, because MISO may call on any available unit during unplanned outages.”
In the determination, the document states the cost of paying $6 million or $7 million each year for a power plant that might run a few hours each year is a burden to taxpayers. It then cites the poverty rate in Ontonagon County, calling the SSR a “burden and hardship” for customers and a drain on the economy.
The Michigan Agency for Energy calls White Pine concerns about power outages in case of ice storms and other weather disasters “scare tactics,” noting the reliability problem extends only to planned outages.
Zack Halkola, Chief Operating Officer of PM Power, White Pine, said, “At the end of the day, the FERC will make the decision for either local generation or the move to a plan to allow consequential load loss.” He said it was an unplanned flood and loss of the plant in Marquette that originally caused the state to turn toward White Pine Electric and the SSR.
“It is foolish and not farsighted to ignore that part of the needs,” he added. “It’s not over complicated. Until new transmission is built, we should be the choice, rather than risk a move.” FERC is expected to make its decision before the Nov. 26 SSR cut-off date.
