No decision filed on Wolverine’s appeal of state’s denial permit

by Richard Lamb, Advance Editor

While no decision has been filed from a lawsuit in Missaukee County as of press time, Wolverine closed a deal to acquire additional power from outside sources. To clarify a story from last week?s Advance, Wolverine closed on an agreement involving First Energy Generation Corporation (FEGC), Peninsula Generation Cooperative (Peninsula). Wolverine had acquired the Sumpter plant in early 2010, not as of Dec. 31, as reported last week. The agreement with FEGC, first reported in the Advance Oct. 28, 2010, transfers and assigns an interest in a ?jurisdictional contract? to Peninsula, which is a entity formed by Wolverine. That contract will ?transfer and assign? to Peninsula 6.65 percent, which is approximately 150 megawatts (MW) of power from assets owned by Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC). Peninsula will own 6.65 percent share of the Kyger Creek power plant in Gallipolis, Ohio and 6.65 percent of the Clifty Creek plant in Madison, Indiana. Both are coal-fired electric generating power plants.

THE AGREEMENT entitles Wolverine to 6.65 percent of the output of the power plants. The Kyger Creek plant has a generating capacity of 1,086,300 kilowatts (KW) and the Clifty Creek plant a capacity of 1,303,560 KW. Both began operation in 1955. Wolverine would receive approximately 150 MW of power from this agreement with an option on an additional 50 MW. Since Wolverine would not need the power until Jan. 1, 2012, OVEC would buy back the power until that time. Company officials had hoped to fill those gaps created as a contract to purchase power expires at the end of this year with the base-load plant in Rogers City. Plans for the Rogers Township plant remain in doubt, after the state denied Wolverine?s major permit last May.

IN DECEMBER 2009 Wolverine announced they were purchasing a 340-MW natural gas-fired power plant in southern Michigan. The Sumpter Plant in W

ayne County, built in 2002, is considered a peaking power plant, licensed only for limited use, not a base-load plant as proposed for the quarry just south of Rogers City. Wolverine owns and operates five electric generating facilities capable of producing approximately 200 MWs located in Tower, Gaylord, Hersey, Vestaburg and Burnips. Wolverine Power announced its plans in May of 2006 for construction of a 600-MW power plant project, planned for land within the Calcite quarry. Wolverine?s is currently appealing the state?s denial of its permit application to construct the plant, which the state issued May 21.

MEANWHILE IN the southern part of the state, an appeal is pending on an Ottawa County judge?s decision regarding a power plant similar to Wolverine?s planned plant. A judge ordered the state to reconsider the Holland Board of Public Works James DeYoung Plant?s (BPW) application based on rules as they stood in August when it was denied. The judge said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) wrongly based its denial of a permit on how much power the community would need in the future and not air quality issues. That ruling now faces an appeal. The BPW plant application is for a 78-megawatt (MW) plant at the existing James DeYoung Power Plant located in the city limits of Holland. BPW filed its permit application Jan. 17, 2007 and was denied Aug. 20 of last year.