Consumers Energy
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Consumers Energy is a public utility that provides natural gas and electricity to more than 6 million of Michigan's 10 million residents. It serves customers in all 68 of the state’s Lower Peninsula counties.
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 1886 as Commonwealth and Southern Company by W.A. Foote, originally tasked to install electric lighting in downtown Jackson. (His wife later founded Foote Hospital, also in Jackson, Michigan.) The company changed its name in 1968 to Consumers Power Company. In 1996, the name of the company was changed to Consumers Energy The company's headquarters are still located in Jackson, Michigan. The company is now a subsidiary of CMS Energy.
Consumers operated the Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant in Charlevoix from 1962 to 1997 and built the Palisades Nuclear Plant near South Haven in 1971, which is still in service.
Consumers Energy's trademark slogan as of 2005 is "Count on Us".
[edit] System Information
Because of utility regulatory changes, Consumers had to sell off its transmission system, to the Michigan Electric Transmission Company (METC), currently an ITC Holdings company. Consumers Energy has an electric generating capacity of 6,000 megawatts. The METC system, which covers the entire Consumers Energy electric service area, uses line voltages of 345,000 volts and 138,000 volts. The subtransmission system voltages are 23,000 and 46,000 volts. Consumers Energy's distribution voltages are 2,400 volt, 4,800 volts, 7,200 volts and 14,400 volts.
[edit] Interconnections
Consumers/METC has four 345KV interconnections with American Electric Power. (Palisades-Cook #1, Palisades-Cook #2, Argenta-Elkhart #1 and Argenta-Elkhart #2) Consumers has four 345KV interconnections with Detroit Edison. (Oneida-Majestic, Tompkins-Majestic, Pontiac-Hampton and Thetford-Jewell).
Consumers has eleven 138kv interconnections with other utilities. Five of them are with Detroit Edison. (Custer-Whiting line, Genoa-Latson line, Hemphill-Hunters Creek line, Atlanta-Karn-Thetford line and the Washtennaw-Lark-Blackstone line). There is one 138kv interconnection each with Northern Indiana Public Service Company and Alpena Power Company. Consumers Energy has two 138kv interconnections with Edison Sault Electric Company in the eastern part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. (McGulpin-Straits #1 and McGulpin-Straits #2). These two lines are submerged under the Straits of Mackinac. Consumers Energy also has two 138KV interconnections with the Lansing Board of Water & Light.
[edit] Generating Plants
Consumers Energy's largest power plant is the Karn-Weadock coal-fired generating station located on Saginaw Bay near Bay City. Other Consumers Energy Coal fired plants are the JH Campbell power plant between Holland and Grand Haven; the Cobb power plant in Muskegon and the Whiting Power Plant on Lake Erie in Luna Pier, just north of the Michigan/Ohio state line.
See also: Lists of public utilities
