Published: June 30, 2022 |

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We Energies decided to postpone by 12 to 18 months the previously announced shutdown of its older Oak Creek coal-fired power plants, citing the tight energy supply and supply-chain challenges for renewable-energy projects.

Two of the Oak Creek units will be retired in May 2024, which is one year later than planned, and two units will be delayed 18 months until late 2025, the company said Thursday.

The plants date back to the 1950s and 1960s but the company said they’re equipped with modern environmental controls. The units have a combined capacity of 1,100 megawatts.

“The decision to postpone the retirement dates for these units is based on two critical factors: tight energy supply conditions in the Midwest power market and supply chain issues that will likely delay the commercial operation of renewable energy projects that are currently moving through the regulatory approval process,” Scott Lauber, who is president of We Energies and CEO of its parent company WEC Energy Group, said in a Thursday press release.

Milwaukee-based WEC Energy in November 2020 disclosed plans to shutter older, less-efficient Oak Creek units as the company shifts to more efficient power generation, including renewables. The older Oak Creek units were constructed in stages that started in 1959 and ended in 1967.

We Energies’ Oak Creek generating site occupies 1,000 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan. The retirements will not include the Elm Road Generating Station in Oak Creek, which was part of the $7 billion “Power the Future” initiative completed over a decade ago.

In May, WEC Energy Group executives disclosed they were anticipating delays in deliveries of some supplies for renewable-energy equipment as well as cost increases of at least 20 percent. The company is embarking on investing over $3.5 billion for Wisconsin solar, wind and battery-storage projects the next few years.

The reasons for the price increases include higher commodity costs, inflation, shipping costs and supply chain issues, spokesman Brendan Conway said in May. Another possible driver of higher costs is the potential of U.S. Department of Commerce tariffs against southeast Asian manufacturers, WEC Energy said.

We Energies said it remains committed to achieving aggressive environmental goals.

Those include a 60 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from its power generation fleet by the end of 2025 and an 80percent reduction by the end of 2030. Both measures are compared with a 2005 baseline.

“Because we plan to operate the older units at Oak Creek largely during the days of highest customer demand, we’re confident that we can remain on track to achieve these industry-leading targets,” Lauber said in the press release.

Source: Milwaukee Business Journal

About We Energies
We Energies serves more than 1.1 million electric customers and 1.1 million natural gas customers in Wisconsin. We Energies is the trade name of Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and Wisconsin Gas LLC, subsidiaries of WEC Energy Group Inc.

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