PORT SHELDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Months away from the planned closure of the J.H. Campbell power plant, Consumers Energy offered public tours of the coal-fired facility — the utility company's final one in operation.
On Saturday, a pair of buses drove hard hat-wearing groups people through the 2,000-acre site in Port Sheldon Township, riding past foothills of coal, towering smokestacks and freight trains still shipping in the sooty power source from Wyoming.
The one-hour tours concluded with an elevator ride up to a fourth-floor turbine deck, where the steam created by coal-heated water turns weighty turbines, generating electricity.
"We’re embedded in the community," said Norm Kapala, Vice President of Generation Operations at Consumers Energy. "Our community does want to come and say their goodbyes."
In 1962, the first of three units at the Campbell complex opened along the shore of Lake Michigan. In 1967 and 1980, the second and third units went online, allowing the plant to generate 1,450 megawatts and provide power to around one million people.
As part of its work towards carbon neutrality, Consumers Energy decided to decommission the plant. While it initially planned to retire its units in 2031 and 2040, it settled with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) in 2022, agreeing to close the entire operation in 2025 and offset the loss of power to the area.
Purchase power agreements and a recently-bought, nearly 1,200-megawatt natural gas plant in Covert Township will replace the coal plant's energy output, Kapala says.
"There is cleaner technology that we can use and still provide a very cost effective solution for our customers," Kapala said. "We are closing the Campbell complex, but we are not abandoning the community of Port Sheldon Township or Ottawa County."
Port Sheldon Township receives a significant amount of property tax revenue from the plant. Kapala says Consumers will continue to occupy the site throughout a decommissioning that will take "years." The utility company may also use the Campbell complex for energy storage.
"How can we transition this property into something that has a beneficial use to the community?" Kapala said about the future of the site.
Around 200 people currently work at the plant, all of whom will have the "opportunity" to continue employment with Consumers.
"Our employees have served us well. These units have served us well," Kapala said. "I believe it's very positive that not only they can turn the chapter, they can move on to the next phase of their career.”
The J.H. Campbell power plant is scheduled to close on May 31, 2025.
