Consumers Energy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Consumers Energy is a public utility that provides natural gas and electricity to more than 6 million of Michigan's 10 million residents. It serves customers in all 68 of the state’s Lower Peninsula counties.
Contents |
[edit] History
The company was founded in 1886 as Commonwealth and Southern Company by W.A. Foote, originally tasked to install electric lighting in downtown Jackson. (His wife later founded Foote Hospital, also in Jackson, Michigan.) The company in 1968 changed its name to Consumers Power Company.[citation needed] In 1996, the name of the company was changed to Consumers Energy. The company's headquarters are still located in Jackson. The company is now a subsidiary of CMS Energy.
Consumers operated the Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant in Charlevoix from 1962 to 1997 and built the Palisades Nuclear Plant near South Haven in 1971, which is still in service.
Consumers Energy's trademark slogan as of 2005 is "Count on Us".
[edit] System Information
Because of utility regulatory changes, Consumers had to give up control of its transmission system; it opted instead to sell the system to the Michigan Electric Transmission Company (METC), currently an ITC Holdings company (which also owns Detroit Edison's transmission system under the "ITCTransmission" brand.) Consumers Energy has an electric generating capacity of 6,000 megawatts. Consumers Energy's primary distribution voltages are 4.8/8.32 kV, 7.2/12.47 kV, and 14.4/24.9 kV. Consumers retained radial 138 kV lines as well.
[edit] Generating Plants
Consumers Energy's largest power plant is the Karn-Weadock coal-fired generating station located on Saginaw Bay near Bay City. Other Consumers Energy Coal fired plants are the JH Campbell power plant between Holland and Grand Haven; the Cobb power plant in Muskegon and the Whiting Power Plant on Lake Erie in Luna Pier, just north of the Michigan/Ohio state line. Consumers also operates and co-owns (with Detroit Edison) the Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant, near Ludington.
[edit] See also
 This article about a company or corporation involved in the energy industry is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
