The Shiras Steam Plant sits along Lake Street in Marquette. (Journal photo by Jaymie Depew)

MARQUETTE — The Marquette Board of Light and Power Board of Directors on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of permanently taking its coal-fired Shiras Steam Plant offline, with the suggestion to demolish the facility before too long.

Board member Ed Angeli was excused from the meeting.

Shiras was initially taken offline in June and placed in a layup status after the last bits of coal were burned at the facility along South Lake Street.

Ever since, the BLP has relied on the newer natural gas-fueled Marquette Energy Center and power purchased from the grid as the primary supply of energy.

Shiras generated 44 megawatts and was ranked as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the country based on sulfur dioxide emission rates, according to the BLP website. However, board Chairman Tom Tourville said it makes sense to stop using coal.

“Continuing to burn coal is just not strategically or economically or environmentally in the best interest of the BLP and our ratepayers,” Tourville said.

From a financial aspect, he said, the option is pretty clear.

“To keep Shiras is always by far the most expensive option in the mix, and we’re not going to produce any more electricity, so if we were blindly to decide hell or high water, we’re just going to keep Shiras because it’s our history, it’s our legacy, well, sure we could do that and our ratepayers will be paying $20 million more over the first five years,” he said.

In August 2017, consulting firm Burns and McDonnell conducted a power supply analysis study for BLP operations. The study revealed the BLP could potentially reduce power supply costs by more than $100 million over the next 20 years by taking advantage of the operational flexibility of the new MEC and using the electric grid markets, overseen by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.

The MEC consists of three 18-megawatt Wartsila reciprocating internal combustion engines, which are fueled primarily by natural gas with the ability to also use fuel oil. The BLP also operates two hydroelectric facilities with lower generating capabilities.

To keep Shiras viable, a number of large capital projects would need to be completed, including ash settling pond modifications, building heaters, boiler dehumidifiers, baghouse repairs, boiler tube work and more.

In addition to these capital projects, additional coal would need to be procured and stored on site and extra personnel would be needed to staff and maintain the facility. The cost for this work would exceed $10 million in the short term, along with other long-term costs for staff, permitting and maintaining the plant, according to BLP Executive Director Tom Carpenter.

With the board’s approval to permanently retire Shiras, Carpenter said the BLP plans to seek bids for the project.

“Our next steps will be to identify any outside support we need to help us move toward disposing of the plant, which is most likely going to be a demo, but we want to make contact (with) some kind of consulting firm that has done this kind of work,” he said.

Carpenter said once an agreement is reached with a firm, the decommissioning of Shiras will take about two years.

“We could keep fixing it like an old car and keep running it, but it doesn’t mean it makes sense,” he said.

Board Director Bob Niemi asked if the BLP would retain its bottomland agreement with the state of Michigan after the plant is taken down.

Carpenter said officials will explore all options during the process.

“We do not own the land that Shiras sits on. It’s a bottomland with the state of Michigan,” he said. “There are a number of options within that program that we’re starting to learn about, one of which would be to buy the land from the bottomland … The bigger piece right now is that we still have a substation there.”

The BLP was founded in 1889 and maintains roughly 350 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines over a service territory of 250 square miles, and serves about 16,500 customers in the city of Marquette and surrounding townships.