Escanaba Power Plant Could Close Soon

The City of Escanaba is moving one step closer to closing its decades-old power plant. The Escanaba City Council has voted in favor of asking energy regulators to allow the city to “retire” its plant this summer, when the current “System Support Resource” contract expires. Escanaba Mayor Marc Tall says there is no other viable option available to the city and that on June 16th they will shut the plant down. The action ends an arrangement the city had with Escanaba Green Energy to buy the plant and convert it to one that uses biomass to produce power. EGE has been trying for more than a year to get the financing needed to pay the city for the power plant, but with no success. Tall says that the city can’t afford to produce electricity at the power plant anymore, that it’s much cheaper to simply buy the power off the grid. Tall says that if the Midcontinent Independent System Operators doesn’t extend the current contract keeping the plant open, and there is no last minute new deal with Escanaba Green Energy, then the power plant will close in June.