Consumers Energy: A Force for You - Saving the dams that mean so much to us

To reduce costs to their customers, Consumer’s Energy is exploring the possibility of selling their 13 dams. As things stand, all 13 combined produce only 1% of the energy used in Northern Michigan, yet cost nine times more to maintain these structures.

But the reservoirs created by these dams are incredibly important to the communities here in Northern Michigan, both for recreational and economical purposes. Consumer’s Energy hopes that they can partner with purchasers to maintain the waterways for generations to come.

Over the past year, Consumer’s Energy has held townhalls across the state to discuss the future of their hydroelectric facilities and the resounding feedback received was the importance of the reservoirs to the communities overall wellbeing. Because of this insight, Consumer’s Energy is exploring all options presented with an emphasis on maintaining the reservoirs.

It is important to note that this is all in the preliminary stages and Consumer’s Energy will be holding a series of public community meetings later this summer and into the fall with the goal of collecting community feedback and discussing the potential of selling the dams. The first meeting will take place on Sept. 18 and will focus on the Croton and Hardy Dams.

For all of the dates and locations of these meetings visit the Hydro Future page on the Consumer’s Energy website.