Dec 11 - Detroit Free Press

Flipping on a light switch is usually an unconscious act for Michiganders. But when the lights don't go on, which is what happened Aug. 14, 2003, the darkness that ensues can be frightening.

That's why, for at least the next 24 years, Michigan will maintain its dependence on a centuries-old source of reliable power: coal.

Coal is the source of most of the electrical power used throughout the United States, and Michigan is no exception. It accounts for nearly 60% of all electricity generated in the state today, and that figure is projected to remain at, or slightly above, that level through 2030, a recent U.S. Department of Energy report says.

The report, called the Annual Energy Outlook 2007, estimates that coal will account for 66% of the nation's total energy supply by 2030, despite a projected sharp increase in biofuels and other renewable energy sources. Annual coal consumption is projected to grow from 1.13 billion tons now to 1.77 billion tons by 2030.

Yet coal processing and conversion to electricity remain dependent on 19th-Century methods.

Michigan used 36.5-million tons of coal to meet its electricity generation needs last year. The coal, which was transported to the state by rail, was crushed into a powder and fed into a combustion chamber at a utility plant that connects directly to the electric grid.

The nation's electric grid is a system of synchronized power providers and consumers connected by more than 157,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines and operated by multiple control centers. In the continental United States, the grid consists of three systems: the Eastern Interconnect, which failed during the blackout of 2003; the Western Interconnect and the Texas Interconnect.

Few capital improvements have been made to the system since 1960.

As households and businesses prepare for winter, recent snowstorms and power outages are a reminder that the state's electricity supply remains vulnerable to massive blackouts, in part, because of a reliance on coal. Michigan has no coal reserves of its own and must rely on coal from places like West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky to power the 20 coal-fired power plants around the state.

"We shouldn't stake Michigan's future on coal," said Mike Shriberg, executive director of Environment Michigan, the state's largest environmental nonprofit. "Given Michigan's projected increases in electricity, we know they can be met most efficiently by renewable energy and greater efficiency. We need to look at 21st-Century technologies, not 19th-Century technologies, to meet Michigan's future electricity needs."

To that end, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's 21st Century Energy Plan is analyzing the state's electricity needs and formulating recommendations on whether to build new coal plants or invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy. In addition, Granholm has charged Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman Peter Lark with the responsibility of drafting a report on the issue of establishing Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards for Michigan. The goal is to have a state quota for renewable energy similar to other states. Wisconsin, for instance, will require its utilities to increase their use of renewable energy from 0.5% in 2001 to 2.2% by 2011.

Some proponents of coal agree that the integrity of the grid will determine the future of coal use for electricity.

"There have been reports that suggest that we're paying relatively too much attention to the availability of supply (of electricity) at the neglect of the investment of the power transmission grid," said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, a Washington, D.C., trade organization that represents mining companies and equipment suppliers. "I would say that one of the most underappreciated events among consumers in general has to be ... what's happened to an old industrial fuel like coal."

Coal isn't the only source of electric generation in Michigan. Nuclear power and natural gas also contribute, but coal remains the most widely used energy source.

"Coal looks to have as much a future in the digital world as it had in the manufacturing world," Popovich said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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