UP employers, utilities and labor urge carve-outs for RICE generators to avoid steep rate increases

Lansing — Dozens of local officials, utilities, employers and labor representatives traveled from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to urge the House Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee to support legislation intended to preserve the role of reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) generation for the UP’s grid.

Representative Bonac, the sponsor of House Bill 4007, told the committee the bill would “ensure that the 13 reciprocating internal combustion engines in the Upper Peninsula — the so called natural-gas powered RICE generators — stay online providing power to the electric grid through the end of their life cycle in 2049.” He said the RICE units were built after retirements of coal plants and provide dispatchable, on-demand power essential to mines, medical centers and other large users.

Utility executives and municipal officials said the RICE plants were the most practical, affordable and rapid solution to replace retiring coal-fired units and to avoid large system-reliability charges and potential blackouts. Tom Carpenter, executive director of the Marquette Board of Light and Power, told the committee the city invested $63 million to build a clean, dispatchable generating facility that “keeps our rates affordable.” He listed emission…