DTE Energy’s newest power plant is up and running in East China Township. President and Chief Operating Officer for DTE Electric Trevor Lauer says the new natural-gas fired Blue Water Energy Center has been in the works for a better part of a decade. It began commercial late last month and it’s grand opening coincided with the closing of the coal-fired St. Clair Power Plant.
“We’re planning to take down the St. Clair power plants, which went offline May 31st, and then bringing on Blue Water, replacing the energy we had there with a much cleaner source and a brand new power plant.”
Lauer, responding to a report from grid operator MISO about the potential for rolling blackouts during peak demand this summer.
“I’d like our customers to know that we have plenty of energy,” Lauer told WPHM. “Sometimes we may ask our customers to turn up their thermostats, some customers we actually pay to be on voluntary interruptible (service, so we will exercise those this summer if we get hot weather.”
The 1100 megawatt power plant is expected to provide power for 850,000 DTE customers. Lauer says the new power plant is the company’s single largest step in reducing carbon emissions to date.
