SAULT STE. MARIE, MI-- Electric customers in the Upper Peninsula will pay more for service if the Presque Isle Power Plant in Marquette is to stay open.
That’s according to Dan Dasho, President and CEO of Cloverland Electric Cooperative in Sault Ste. Marie.
Wisconsin Electric lost 80 percent of its electric load when the Empire and Tilden mines found a cheaper power source under the 2008 Customer Choice and Electric Reliability Act. The company then announced it was going to close the Presque Isle plant, but a regional power grid operator said the plant had to stay open to keep the U.P. electrical system reliable.
Dasho says that means all U.P. electric bills will rise.
Officials are trying to develop a fair and equitable formula to pay the plant’s
$52 million operational costs.
