Patrick Bolin, chief executive and general manager of the Michigan Public Power Agency, told the Petoskey City Council on Dec. 1 that the city’s power supply is generally in good shape through about 2030 but faces a meaningful risk of capacity shortfalls in 2030–31. Bolin warned that the city must prepare to show a capacity demonstration to the state under Public Act 341 in February–March 2027 and that decisions taken now will affect rates and reliability in the decade ahead.

Bolin described three pillars of public power—cost, reliability and community control—and said MPPA helps small utilities achieve those goals through pooled buying power, hedging and targeted project work. He outlined industrywide challenges: rapid changes in rules and trade policy since 2021, supply-chain and inflation pressures that doubled some project costs, and large swings in regional capacity forecasts (he cited scenarios ranging from an 8.2‑gigawatt deficit to an 11.4‑gigawatt surplus in different futures). "It's becoming much more challenging," Bolin said, noting MPPA is upgrading portfolio-management tools and expects to resume active procurement in 2026.

On local planning, Bolin told council members Petoskey is ‘‘in really good shape on capacity, generally speaking, through 29–30, but in 30–31 you go negative.’’ He said MPPA and member communities must act now because bringing new capacity online can take multiple years. He repeated that members retain autonomy: "We are a project‑based agency...you can actually go out and do your own projects. You do not have to use MPPA," but added MPPA offers recommendations and shared services that often make economic sense.

Council members pressed on the city's renewable-energy goal and project options. Bolin said reaching a 50% renewable supply by 2030 has become more difficult due to rule changes that reduce the accredited capacity value of some solar projects and because prices rose substantially after 2021; he recommended staged, risk‑managed procurement and noted near‑term options such as battery storage could provide firming value. On a local landfill solar project that depended on USDA financing, Bolin said the loan terms became harder to underwrite under the current administration; without USDA direct-pay financing the project could still be built but would be significantly more expensive, and he expected a decision by the end of the year or in early January.

Bolin also addressed other questions: small modular nuclear technology remains years away, biomass projects have historically been uneconomic in Michigan, and municipal utilities have pursued revenue diversification (for example, fiber installations) in some communities. He emphasized MPPA’s risk-management policy—members must secure a planned share of their future needs as price‑certain hedges so retail rates can be set reliably.

Next steps cited by Bolin and staff include completing MPPA’s new portfolio management system (planned to go live in 2026), continuing local planning with council and staff, and filing the required capacity demonstration with the state by early 2027. "You have the ultimate trump card," Bolin told council members about municipal authority over whether to follow MPPA’s recommendations. "If you wanna not subscribe to it, you can change your mind."