DTE Electric wants Michigan regulators to approve two new gas-fired power plants that the utility estimates will cost $6.4 billion, with carbon capture promised by 2035. The plan, filed in September as part of a 20-year resource plan, would add about 2.1 gigawatts of generation in the Detroit area in 2031 and 2032 while the company closes the Monroe coal plant.
Save more, waste less: The Cool Down’s newsletter sends smart, simple changes that help you and the planet in your everyday life.
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
Critics see data centers in the arithmetic. DTE has contracted to serve 2.4 gigawatts of new load for Oracle and Google, a figure that tracks closely with the gas capacity requested, and Michigan law sets a demanding bar for how clean gas generation has to be before it counts toward the state’s carbon-free goal.
Two plants, $6.4 billion and the 2031-2032 schedule
DTE’s integrated resource plan executive summary lists a combined-cycle plant of about 1,400 megawatts in Livingston County at an estimated $3.9 billion, entering service in 2031, and a 700-megawatt unit in Monroe County at an estimated $2.5 billion in 2032. Those two figures add up to the $6.4 billion. A separate 138-megawatt cogeneration acquisition at $130 million would arrive in 2030.
The filing, Michigan Public Service Commission case U-22168, gives regulators 360 days from the September filing to rule. It also proposes shutting Monroe Units 3 and 4 in 2028 and Units 1 and 2 in 2032, ending DTE Electric’s coal fleet, while adding roughly 15 gigawatts of renewables and 4.5 gigawatts of storage.
Both gas plants are designed to be ready for carbon capture and storage, which DTE plans to start operating at both in 2035. The company projects annual emissions of about 2.0 million tons in 2035, a 90 percent cut from 2005. The executive summary is signed by DTE Energy chief executive Joi Harris and DTE Electric president Matt Paul.
Monroe is the piece of the plan with the largest footprint. The executive summary says replacing the nation’s second-largest coal plant requires a balanced approach, and the two pairs of units being retired total 1,535 megawatts and 1,531 megawatts. State targets frame the timetable: a renewable portfolio standard of 50 percent by 2030 and 60 percent by 2035, and a clean energy standard of at least 80 percent from 2035 to 2039, rising to 100 percent from 2040.
Oracle, Google and 2.4 gigawatts of data-center load
The 2022 version of the plan sought 946 megawatts of gas with capture. Canary Media reported that the proposal now cites 2.4 gigawatts of new customer load as a change since then, tied to contracts with Oracle and Google.
Helen Li, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, told Canary Media that looking at the numbers, it is hard not to draw a direct link, and that DTE is trying to lock in billions of dollars of new gas plants now. DTE declined to comment to the outlet and pointed to its generation webpage.
The Google arrangement is already contested. On Oct. 30, Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the commission to reexamine its approval of DTE’s special contracts for a hyperscale Google data center in Van Buren Township, in case U-22058. Nessel said the contracts are massive, twenty-year, billion-dollar deals with one of the wealthiest businesses on the planet, and she argued that costs and benefits must be reconciled annually. She said the commission’s own review concedes other customers would subsidize the facility from 2035 through 2038.
Those filings sit on two different dockets, but they describe the same tension: capacity built for a few very large customers, paid for through a rate base shared by millions of households.
The 90 percent capture rule and the ratepayer bet
Michigan’s clean energy law requires carbon-free electricity by 2040, and under the state program details gas plants can count as clean only if they capture at least 90 percent of smokestack emissions. Canary Media noted that U.S. electric utilities have not yet successfully deployed carbon capture and sequestration at that scale.
Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer at the Michigan Environmental Council, called the plan incredibly expensive and a huge, risky bet for ratepayers and the state. Mark Templeton, director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago, said locking in continued gas use is better than coal, but that is not saying much.
The cost uncertainty is built into DTE’s own estimate. Capture expenses are hard to predict, so the total could climb above $6.4 billion, and the legislature has been weighing its own carbon capture proposals, which drew mixed responses from environmental groups in a House committee in September.
The scale of the request stands out against the earlier plan. The 2022 version sought 946 megawatts of gas with capture, so the 2.1 gigawatts now on the table is more than double, while the contracted data-center load that Canary Media tied to the change stands at 2.4 gigawatts.
The decision point is the commission’s ruling on case U-22168, due within 360 days of the filing. Until then, the open question is whether regulators approve the gas fleet before anyone knows what capture will cost or whether it will work.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
Save more, waste less: Subscribe to The Cool Down →
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
More from Morning Overview
- The FBI told the rest of ShinyHunters to surrender after a 24-year-old was arrested
- Two passengers died at an Ohio toll plaza, and the NTSB now wants the cash lanes shut
- Long use of a common prostate pill is tied to a higher chance of glaucoma
- Ford is recalling 223,472 F-150 pickups because the fuel tank can leak or detach
