Michigan Public Service Commission Approves Six Energy Storage Projects Totaling 1,332 MW

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has approved six energy storage projects totaling 1,332 MW of capacity to improve grid reliability during energy transition.

The contracts approved include:

• 450 MW Big Mitten Energy Center
• 350 MW Monroe I Energy Center
• 200 MW Fermi Energy Center
• 132 MW Fish Creek Energy Center
• 100 MW Cold Creek Energy Center
• and the 100 MW Pine River Energy Center.

The first three energy storage projects will provide a combined 1,000 MW of energy storage capacity to fulfil the settlement agreement in DTE Electric’s most recent approved integrated resource plan (Case No. U-21193). The settlement agreement identified at least an 850 MW need for energy storage projects to fulfil the company’s electric capacity requirements.

The approved contracts include a 20-year tolling agreement with the Big Mitten Energy Center in Huron County and self-build contracts for the Fermi Energy Center Project and the Monroe I Energy Center Project in Monroe County. The approvals allow DTE Electric achieve terms of the utility’s most recent integrated resource plan, approved in a 2023 settlement agreement, which requested adding 15,000 MW of solar and wind energy generation in Michigan.

The last three contracts listed are energy storage projects owned and operated by DTE Electric that will serve the 1,383 MW data center developed by Green Chile Ventures in Washtenaw County’s Saline Township (Case No. U-21990) and allow the utility to improve grid reliability and minimize costs for customers. The Commission had approved DTE Electric’s application for the data center imposing mandatory safeguards to prevent residential and other customers from subsidizing its costs.

DTE Electric sought approval of the Cold Creek Energy Center, Fish Creek Energy Center and Pine River Energy center, along with the equipment supply agreements for battery modules and the master service agreements for engineering, procurement and construction.

The data center battery storage projects approved are the first 332 MW of 1,383 MW of company-owned energy storage facilities that Green Chile Ventures must develop to match the data center’s contracted demand. The total capacity of the battery storage projects the Commission approved for the

data center project in Case No. U-21990 is greater than the capacity of DTE Electric’s 1,150 MW Blue Water Energy Center, a recent natural gas-fired plant built in Michigan, which the MPSC approved in 2018.

Under terms of the approval of the data center, Green Chile Ventures will bear the costs over a 15-year period to develop the energy storage for the project. DTE Electric will develop, own and operate the facilities to benefit its grid, while Green Chile will receive the value of any market revenues from operating the facilities in the wholesale market.

The two sets of storage project approvals in Case No. U-21193 and Case No. U-21990 brought DTE Electric’s total storage capacity to 2,606 MW.

The Commission denied petitions for rehearing and motions to reopen proceedings on the Commission’s approval of special contracts for DTE Electric to provide electric service for a 1,383 MW data center to be built in Washtenaw County’s Saline Township. The Commission found that the Attorney General and others petitioning for rehearing lacked standing to petition for rehearing, and that they also did not identify errors, newly discovered evidence, facts or circumstances arising after the hearing, or unintended consequences from the Commission’s order necessary to justify rehearing under the Commission’s rules.

Similarly, the Commission denied motions to reopen the case filed by the Attorney General and the Michigan Environmental Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Citizens Utility Board of Michigan.

The Commission’s initial approval of the data center included the nation’s protections to prevent other customers from having to pay the data center’s cost. The protections include the utility agreeing to be responsible for costs it is unable to recover from Green Chile Ventures.

Additional protections included a minimum contract duration of 19 years, a minimum billing demand of 80% that requires the data center to pay a minimum of 80% of its contracted electric use even if actual use is lower, and a termination payment of up to 10 years’ worth of minimum billing demand if the facility stops operating before its contracted date. The Commission also denied the Attorney General’s request for a contested proceeding on DTE Electric’s application for approval of battery contracts related to the data center, finding that the contracts met the requirements for ex parte consideration.

The MPSC approved a per-lamp credit to benefit local governments that were early adopters of LED, or light emitting diode, lamps for public lighting through DTE Electric (Case No. U-22001). The early adopters paid contributions in aid of construction between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2024, for a technology which became a standard service.

DTE started replacing lighting failures with LED lights at no cost to customers. In January 2025, the Commission directed DTE Electric to develop the bill credits for municipal early adopters so that they are not subsidizing municipalities waiting until LED conversion was announced by the utility. (Case No. U-21534).