There are a number of reasons the City of Holland should join other municipalities like Jamestown Township and Georgetown Township in Ottawa County in seeking to stop the 2025 closure and demolition of the Campbell plant.
First, the City of Holland/Holland Board of Public Works has a direct stake in the Campbell plant, in part as indicated in this article:
“Holland Board of Public Works will also feel the ripples of the retirement of Unit 3, in which the city-owned utility has a life-of-plant contract for 11 megawatts of power. Unit 3 was previously scheduled to retire in 2040. HBPW and nine other public utilities bought stakes in Unit 3 of the coal-fired power plant in 1979 through the Michigan Public Power Agency, a joint action agency that facilitates power buys for Michigan’s publicly owned utilities. MPPA has about 5 percent ownership in Campbell Unit 3.” – https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/news/local/2021/07/04/what-does-early-closure-jh-campbell-plant-mean-west-michigan/7839793002/
The actions of the MPSC and Consumers Energy in their current direction is a breach of contract with the City of Holland/HBPW, as it was with Wolverine Cooperative. This is why Wolverine is successfully litigating it as explained in part at https://www.courts.michigan.gov/493277/siteassets/business-court-opinions/c20-2022-006876-cb(march1,2024).pdf and https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2022/07/planned-closure-of-coal-fired-power-plant-sparks-lawsuits-between-utilities.html . The Campbell plant was not to be retired until much later, and they are breaking contract with Holland to close it so prematurely, especially given the condition of our regional grid.
Furthermore, the City of Holland has direct responsibility of the electric grid in Holland, with municipalized electric. The regional electric grid is very inter-connected, and problems with it, are problems for the City of Holland’s grid. If the Campbell plant and other closures go through, then the City of Holland has a fiduciary responsibility to take measures to mitigate foreseeable future problems- problems indicated at https://www.misoenergy.org/meet-miso/media-center/2024/oms-miso-survey-results-indicate-tight-resource-capacity-in-the-upcoming-planning-year/ and https://savethecampbell.com/more-evidence-the-grid-cannot-absorb-precipitous-closures-like-the-campbell/. The most efficient and effective way to address the City of Holland’s electric grid challenges in the coming years is to get delayed closure of the Campbell plant. If this action does not work, then the City of Holland may need to take alternative actions.
Rules stating that the council may speak and act only on matters that are within its direct operational control do not preclude actions with other municipalities to resolve matters under the city’s direct operational control, because there are certain internal matters which can only be appropriately addressed by working cooperatively with other municipalities. Electric is directly under the City of Holland’s operational control, but the best solution to challenges ahead can only adequately be addressed by working with other municipalities in the county.
Finally, the electric grid is a vital issue to the well-being of the City of Holland. Its gravity simply cannot be ignored without major negative repercussions.
We would encourage Holland residents to let the Holland City Council know you would like them to join in this effort. It is very important to the effort that Ottawa County is united in seeking delay of closure and demolition.