DTE Energy to build new gas plants in Michigan

OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2016. DTE Energy plans to build new natural gas plants in Michigan that will replace retiring coal facilities.

The new 1,000MW gas plant is expected to be completed between 2021 and 2023 at a DTE owned property in China Township, Michigan, adjacent to its Belle River power plant.

An efficient gas plant with similar generation capacity should burn about 130mn cf/d gas (3.7mn m?/d) while operating at 80pc capacity factor and a heat rate of 7,000Btu/kWh.

The announcement underscores growing interest in low-cost gas in the power generation sector as coal plant operators face growing regulatory pressure.

The Detroit-based power generator in June announced that it will retire three of its five Michigan coal plants — the River Rouge, St. Clair and Trenton Channel by 2023. That capacity will be replaced by a mix of gas, wind and solar energy, the company says.

In 2015, DTE bought the 732MW Renaissance Power Plant in Carson City and the 350MW Dean Peaker Plant in East China Township, both in Michigan.

"These new energy generation investments will significantly reduce greenhouses gases by moving to cleaner technologies," chief executive Gerry Anderson said.

DTE is also highly invested in natural gas midstream assets that indicates the company's growing interest in the fuel source.

The company recently announced that it will buy two natural gas gathering systems in the growing Appalachia region for \\$1.3bn.

The gathering system will supply gas to the proposed 1.5 Bcf/d Nexus Gas Transmission project that DTE and Spectra Energy is developing to supply gas in northern Ohio, southeastern Michigan and Ontario, Canada. DTE has commitments for up to 150mn cf/d of gas on that pipeline, which it could use to supply its gas plants.

Natural gas-fired generation is projected to be the dominant source of baseload power generation capacity in the US amid low gas prices, tougher emissions standards and an aging fleet of coal-fired plants, according to the American Public Power Association (APPA).