Consumers Energy Releases RFP for 30-Megawatts of Renewable Energy

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Consumers Energy, a regulated subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS)(Jackson, Michigan), has released a request for proposal (RFP) for 30-megawatts (MW) (100% availability), or 265,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year, with preferred commercial online date of December 31, 2005, to test reliability of renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, geothermal, and hydro). The state of Michigan has finalized its renewable portfolio standard, which calls for 8% of electricity sold in the state to come from renewable sources by 2010, with an increase to 22% by 2020, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Consumers Energy currently sells about 39.3 million MWh per year with no growth, which would mean that by 2010, 3.14 million MWh, or 359 MW of renewable energy would need to be produced 100% of the time. Consumers would need to add an additional 85 MWs, as well as 8% of the load growth per year, which could drive it up to 90 MW per year, depending on growth, to meet the goal for 2010.

Consumers Energy currently has in-house generation capacity of 6,441 MW. Consumers Energy has set a date of March 21, 2005 at 5:00 PM EDT to submit notice of intent to participate, and then have RFP’s submitted by April 11, 2005, at 5:00 PM. The target date to identify winning bids is May 11, 2005 with signed contracts to be submitted to Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) by June 10, 2005.

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