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Utility Proposes Amendments Re: Data Center And High Load Customers
As reported previously, Consumers filed a petition requesting the Michigan Public Service Commission approve proposed amendments to its Rate GPD that apply to high-load customers such as data centers.
Reply briefs due by September 16, 2025
An order is targeted for October 9, 2025.
In its petition Consumers is “proposing changes to address the unique circumstances created by data centers and to ensure that accommodating the growth attributed to data centers does not create unacceptable risks for Consumers Energy or its customers.” Specifically, for data centers with an aggregate load of at least 100MW, Consumers proposes:
- an upfront administrative fee of up to $100,000 per project proposal;
- a 15-year minimum contract;
- a monthly minimum billing demand of “80% of the data center’s Contract Capacity and applied to their Maximum Demand and On Peak Demand”;
- a one-time discretionary “reduction to a data center’s Contract Capacity”;
- “authority to take action if a data center customer’s usage exceeds the Contract Capacity by more than 1,000 kW”;
- if determined appropriate, financial security to mitigate risk; and
- “an exit fee in the event the data center customer stops taking full (generation and distribution) electric service from the Company during the contract term… calculated by multiplying the customer’s most recent Minimum Billing Demand by the remaining months in the contract term.”
U-21859
(Consumers petition proposing amendments to its Rate GPD)
