Early coal miners would take canaries deep into the mines with them while they worked to act as early detection systems. Commonly, carbon monoxide and/or methane gas could build up to dangerous levels, killing miners with no warning. Canaries were more sensitive to the gasses and so literally if the bird was alive, the miner was fine, if the bird died, the miner had to get out fast.

Wolverine staff continues to invest long hours commissioning the Alpine Power Plant. The generation group commits most of its plant crews to Alpine commissioning and training, while several Cadillac employees spend the majority of their time at Alpine. In addition, transmission interconnection facilities and related system upgrades proceed on schedule. The work load is immense, and schedules remain tight, and I’m really proud of our crews … but the construction isn’t what’s kept me up at night for the past two months.

For nearly 15 months, Wolverine slogged through the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) Generator Interconnection Agreement (GIA) phase. In addition to the plant construction and the physical transmission interconnection facilities, the GIA process makes up the third leg of the stool when building a power plant. It forms the contractual rights (and obligations) to interconnect a new generator to the grid. This process caused headache after headache for Wolverine, and like some high stakes “Whack-a-Mole” game, as soon as we solved one problem, another would pop up.

Like many bureaucratic processes, bright, well-intentioned people create one reasonable rule at a time until, in their totality, the rules combine to form a total MESS.  Wolverine agreed to build additional transmission upgrades, including installation of a second 69/138 kV transformer at Gaylord, and we have to pay to upgrade an AEP transformer 250 miles away!  Wolverine finally executed the GIA last week, and ultimately clawed back millions of dollars on behalf of our members.

I feel like Wolverine has been the canary in the Michigan coal mine. We survived this GIA mess, but it may just be too late for the next builder of generation in Michigan to react next time. I’m glad Wolverine will complete Alpine first. The next poor souls that head into this bureaucratic abyss may not come out alive, and Michigan may not react quickly enough to replace its aging coal generating fleet.