JACKSON, Mich., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Consumers Energy unveiled today its Balanced Energy Initiative, a comprehensive plan to meet the energy needs of its 1.8 million electric customers over the next 20 years. The Balanced Energy Initiative calls for meeting the growing customer demand for electricity with energy efficiency, demand management, expanding the use of renewable energy, and developing new power plants, along with utilizing existing generating sources. The utility's plan is designed to help maintain affordable and reliable supplies of electricity for Michigan's families and businesses. The Balanced Energy Initiative outlines potential investments in major new power plants, offering significant economic development benefits. Chief among those benefits is the creation of thousands of good-paying construction jobs for skilled trades workers, followed by the creation of hundreds of jobs for highly skilled workers to operate and maintain the power plants. Consumers Energy filed the Balanced Energy Initiative with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). The initiative was developed in response to the 21st Century Energy Plan issued earlier this year by the MPSC chairman, J. Peter Lark. "The 21st Century Energy Plan recognized that customers in Michigan are using more electricity every year and if we don't act now the state won't have enough power to meet its needs in a few years," said John Russell, the president and chief operating officer of Consumers Energy. "The 21st Century Energy Plan and the Balanced Energy Initiative both recognize that legislative and regulatory changes are needed in Michigan so the new power plants needed to serve customers can be financed and built," he said, adding that the state's electric choice law would have to be repealed or significantly reformed before Consumers Energy could fully implement the Balanced Energy Initiative. Parts of the Balanced Energy Initiative, such as energy efficiency and demand management programs, could be launched fairly quickly, but it can take up to 10 years to bring a baseload power plant online to serve customers and the customer demand for electricity continues to grow, Russell said. For example, customers set an all-time peak demand record last August of 8,883 megawatts. That customer demand level exceeded the previous record by 4.8 percent. "As a state, we need to have this discussion now and start working on a variety of fronts to make sure Michigan's families and businesses will have the power they need in the future," Russell said. "We need to make sure we have policies that allow for a balance of energy sources and strategies, including energy efficiency and renewable energy." The highlights of the Balanced Energy Initiative are: -- Endorses the 21st Century Energy Plan position that all customers in the state can benefit from a well-designed, cost-effective, energy efficiency program. Consumers Energy believes the 21st Century Energy Plan target for reduction via energy efficiency is very aggressive and won't be achieved without strong involvement by the state's utilities. -- Demand management programs that would let customers volunteer to help lower power peaks by allowing limited interruptions to their air conditioning and continuing existing interruptible service programs. -- Supplement Consumers Energy's successful Green Generation program so renewable energy makes up 10 percent of the electricity that the utility's customers use. It's now 5 percent. -- Adding about 500 megawatts of gas-fired combined cycle capacity by 2011 by purchasing an existing facility or building a new facility. -- Constructing a new 750 megawatt clean coal generating facility on an existing Consumers Energy site and have it in operation in 2015. The expectation is that municipal utilities or other parties would own 250 megawatts of that plant, which would use state-of-the-art emissions controls. -- Preserving the option to build a second coal unit to take advantage of the economies of scale from building two units and to accommodate the interests of other parties interested in sharing new capacity. Consumers Energy, the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, provides natural gas and electricity to nearly 6.5 million of Michigan's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. For more information about Consumers Energy, visit our Website at http://www.consumersenergy.com/ DATASOURCE: Consumers Energy CONTACT: Jeff Holyfield, +1-517-788-2394, or Dan Bishop, +1-517-788-2395, both of Consumers Energy Web site: http://www.consumersenergy.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/203850.html

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