Indiana Michigan Power has submitted its latest Powering Our Future plan to the Michigan Public Service Commission, seeking rate increases to pay for a project that would improve service reliability. I&M spokesperson Tracy Warner tells us the company is asking for permission to raise rates by 9.67%, or $34 million. He says this would pay for a lot of work.
“For example, one of the things we’re looking at is replacing over 850 aging poles, and these would be proactively replaced before they fail, and we would replace over 90 miles of wire,” Warner said. “Another thing we’re looking to do is move about 45 miles of power lines from pretty hard to reach areas to get those along roadways so that if there is an outage, we can get to those lines a lot faster.”
Under the proposal, the bill for a typical residential customer who uses 1,000 kWh of electricity a month would go from $162.96 to $177.90 per month. Warner says if I&M receives federal grants it’s seeking, then the rate increases for customers would be lower. Also in the plan is a request to begin a study on whether I&M should apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year extension of the licenses for the reactors at the Cook nuclear power plant. Warner says beginning that study is the first step toward extending the plant’s life. The reactor licenses are scheduled to expire in 2034 and 2037. You can see I&M’s full proposal right here. The MPSC has 10 months to make a decision on the I&M proposal.
