South Michigan News

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently sent a letter to Michigan lawmakers, urging them to adopt energy strategies that would require new energy sources to be fully dispatchable.

Electric energy sources that are fully dispatchable are those that can be switched off and on, or otherwise moderated, in order to meet the always-changing electricity demands of the population. Most conventional power sources, such as coal or nuclear power plants, are dispatchable. By contrast, many renewable energy sources, such as wind power or solar power, are unreliable and intermittent, which means they only generate electricity while their primary energy flow is active.

As Texas experiences energy outages during extreme weather conditions, the Mackinac Center reminds residents that Michigan went through similar circumstances during the 2019 Polar Vortex event when a major source of the state’s natural gas supply failed, and wind and solar supplied only negligible amounts of power to the energy grid. Fortunately, the state had significant amounts of nuclear- and coal-based power to supply essential energy for heating.

Texas and other states that have been battered by the recent extreme winter conditions, such as Kansas and Oklahoma, are further along in the transition to reliance on renewable energy systems than Michigan. And as a result, they have been more heavily impacted when those energy sources provide insufficient power to meet overwhelming demand.

The Mackinac Center urges caution as mandates by lawmakers and major public utilities seek to expand renewable energy sources and replace existing utilities powered by coal, natural gas and nuclear with less-reliable sources like solar and wind.

“Michigan needs to be cautious in its energy endeavors,” said Jason Hayes, director of environmental policy at the Mackinac Center. “As Michigan’s utilities switch to a heavier reliance on fickle energy sources, lawmakers should adopt a new reliable energy standard that requires any new electricity generation source to be fully dispatchable. Michigan residents should not have to depend on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing in order to have reliable electricity.”

Hayes' letter, which was directed to Sen. Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway Township) and Rep. Joe Bellino (R-Monroe), both chairs of their respective energy committees, can be viewed online by constituents.