COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Residential and business customers of the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities (CBPU) will soon see additional charges on their power bills to cover operating losses from Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell coal plant.
Although Consumers Energy originally planned to retire the aging West Olive facility in May of last year a move projected to save ratepayers $600 million over two decades, federal emergency orders from the U.S. Department of Energy have mandated it remain operational until at least May 2026.
These orders, cited for grid reliability despite objections from state regulators, have already resulted in over $135 million in extra costs as the plant loses approximately $615,000 per day.
In Branch County, the impact is direct because the CBPU is a major member of the Michigan South Central Power Agency (MSCPA), utilizing roughly 60% of the power delivered to that system.
Because the federal order requires losses to be recovered from users across the regional grid, these “unwanted costs” are being passed down to local municipal utilities. CBPU Director Paul Jakubczak has called for a full audit of the charges to ensure customers are not paying for anything beyond true operating costs, while Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed legal challenges to the federal directives, calling them an “unlawful” and “staggering” burden on state ratepayers.
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