The story
History
The company was founded in 1886 as Jackson Electric Light Works by William A. Foote, Samuel Jarvis, of Lansing, and his brother James B. Foote, who was originally tasked to install electric lighting in downtown Jackson. After a series of acquisitions and mergers involving other local electric, gas, and trolley companies which were properties of W.A. Foote, as well as Anton G. Hodenpyl and Henry. D. Walbridge, the company incorporated as Consumers Power Company in 1910 in Maine. It became part of the utility holding conglomerate Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, which held utilities in 10 other states. His wife later founded Foote Hospital, now Henry Ford Allegiance Health, also in Jackson, Michigan.
Commonwealth and Southern dissolved in 1946, leaving Consumers Power (and all other utility holdings) an independent company. After serving Michigan for more than 80 years, the company reincorporated in Michigan in 1968 and maintained its headquarters in Jackson, Michigan. 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 was sold to Entergy.
In 1968, Consumers Power began construction of a nuclear power plant in Midland, Michigan, primarily for the Dow Chemical Company. However, construction issues caused delays and increased costs. The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 resulted in a massive change in nuclear regulatory requirements and system redesign. When it was revealed the containment buildings were settling and foundation cracks were discovered, Dow cancelled its contract with Consumers Power, and the project was abandoned in 1984. The $4.1 billion investment nearly bankrupted Consumers Power. However, in 1985, Consumers Power formed a partnership with eight other companies to convert Midland's abandoned nuclear plant into a natural gas-fired power plant. Transformation of the plant began in 1986 and was completed at a cost of $500 million. The Midland Cogeneration Venture began producing power in 1991 and that success restored faith in Consumers Power.
In 1997, the name of the company was changed to Consumers Energy. In 2011, Consumers Energy received approval to establish a 100-megawatt wind energy facility in Michigan's Mason County called Lake Winds Energy Park. In 2014, the company announced their second wind farm in Tuscola County with a total investment of $250 million, and named it Cross Winds Energy Park. By 2015, Consumers Energy produced ten percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
In 2009, Consumers Energy launched comprehensive electric and natural gas energy efficiency programs that included rebates and incentives for homes and businesses. Consumers Energy's trademark slogan is "Count on Us", and it is the primary subsidiary of CMS Energy.
In 2018, Consumers Energy announced plans to retire all coal-burning plants by 2040 and expects to have 40% renewable power by then. In 2018, Consumers Energy became the title sponsor of the August Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
In December 2020, Garrick J. Rochow assumed the role of President & CEO of CMS and Consumers Energy after a 17-year tenure at the company.
System information
Because of utility regulatory changes, Consumers divested 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's primary distribution voltages are 2.77/4.8Y, 4.8/8.32Y, 7.2/12.47Y, 7.97/13.8Y and 14.4/24.9Y. Consumers retained its looped 23 kV and 46 kV high-voltage sub-transmission (HVD) systems and its radial 138 kV lines as well.
From Wikipedia’s article on Consumers Energy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4