Campbell Generating Plant
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Campbell Generating Plant is an operating power station of at least 1540-megawatts (MW) in West Olive, Ottawa, Michigan, United States. It is also known as JH Campbell power station.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Campbell Generating Plant | West Olive, Ottawa, Michigan, United States | 42.910296, -86.20074 (exact) |
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3: 42.910296, -86.20074
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | Start year | Retired year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Operating | coal: subbituminous | 265 | subcritical | 1962 | 2025 (planned) |
| Unit 2 | Operating | coal: bituminous | 404 | supercritical | 1967 | 2025 (planned) |
| Unit 3 | Operating | coal: bituminous | 871 | subcritical | 1980 | 2025 (planned) |
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Consumers Energy Co [100%] | CMS Energy Corp [100.0%] |
| Unit 2 | Consumers Energy Co [100%] | CMS Energy Corp [100.0%] |
| Unit 3 | unknown [6%]; Consumers Energy Co [93%] | CMS Energy Corp [93.3%]; unknown [6.7%] |
Unit Retirements
CMS Energy planned to retire two of the power station's coal-fired units by 2031, and the final third coal unit by 2040. The decision was part of the utility's pledge to eliminate the use of coal to generate electricity by 2040.[1]
In June 2021, Consumers Energy announced plans to speed up the retirement of all 3 units of the Campbell Generating Plant closure to 2025, pending approval by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Units 1 and 2 would close 6 years earlier and unit 3 would close 15 years earliers then previously planned.[2]
In June 2022, Consumer Energy's Integrated Resource Plan was approved by the MPSC.[3]
Department of Energy orders Campbell to stay online
In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ordered the Campbell Generating Plant to stay open past its previously planned closure date at the end of the month and remain online at least until late August 2025. The DOE reportedly cited possible electricity shortages in the central U.S. as the reason for the delay. The Michigan Public Service Commission countered that there was “no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or MISO [Midcontinent Independent System Operator]” and that keeping the plant open was “unnecessary.” The owner of the plant, Consumers Energy, said it would comply with the order, which was set to expire on August 21, 2025.[4]
In June 2025, Michigan’s attorney general filed a request for rehearing with the DOE regarding its order to keep the Campbell coal plant open, arguing that it would impose “unnecessary costs” on ratepayers, generate avoidable pollution, and intrude on the powers of Michigan and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to regulate the electric grid.[5][6] A separate request for rehearing by the DOE was filed by a coalition of public interest groups, including Earthjustice, Sierra Club, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Michigan Environmental Council, Environmental Defense Fund, Vote Solar, Public Citizen, Union of Concerned Scientists, the Ecology Center, and Urban Core Collective.[7] After the DOE reportedly ignored the request for rehearing, in July 2025, the Michigan attorney general filed an appeal challenging the DOE’s order to keep the coal plant online. The petition claimed that the order was “arbitrary and illegal” and declared an “emergency without evidence.”[8][9]
According to reporting from July 2025, Consumers Energy had spent US$29 million in the first month of complying with the DOE’s order to keep the Campbell coal plant running past its planned retirement. The company said they would seek to recover the operating costs and expected costs to be shared by customers in the north and central MISO regions.[10]
Emissions Data
- 2024 Gross Load (MWh): 8,917,578[11]
- 2024 SO2 Mass (short tons): 5,424[11]
- 2024 CO2 Mass (short tons): 8,934,623[11]
- 2024 NOx Mass (short tons): 3,232[11]
- 2023 Mercury emissions (Hg, lb): 41.25[12][13]
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from Campbell Generating Plant
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[14] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[15]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the Campbell Generating Plant
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 140 | $1,000,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 230 | $25,000,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 2,300 | $120,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 100 | $2,400,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 86 | $38,000,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 140 | $51,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ "Last coal plant on the Saginaw Bay goes offline in 2023," M Live, June 13, 2018
- ↑ "CMS utility Consumers Energy accelerating Campbell coal-fired, Karn dual-fuel closures" Power-eng.com, June 24, 2021
- ↑ "MPSC Approves Settlement Moving Consumers Energy Beyond Coal in 2025" Earthjustice, June 23, 2022
- ↑ “Trump administration orders Michigan coal plant to stay open,” AP News, May 27, 2025
- ↑ “Michigan, environmental groups challenge federal order to keep coal plant open,” Power Engineering, June 20, 2025
- ↑ “Nessel challenges order to keep J.H. Campbell Plant open as energy experts predict price hikes,” Michigan Advance, June 20, 2025
- ↑ “Ten Groups Push Back Against Trump’s Illegal Campbell Plant Extension,” Earthjustice, June 18, 2025
- ↑ “AG challenges order keeping JH Campbell plant online,” WoodTV, July 25, 2025
- ↑ “Attorney General files appeal against federal mandate on coal plant operation,” Great Lakes Wire, July 29, 2025
- ↑ “Consumers Energy spends millions keeping coal plant open per fed order,” The Detroit News, July 31, 2025
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 EIA (2024). "Clean Air Markets Program Data (CAMD)". Retrieved 2025-02-20.
- ↑ Clean Air and Power Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (February 2024). "Annual data 2022 vs. 2023". Retrieved 2025-03-04.
- ↑ Toxics Release Inventory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (October 2024). "2023 Basic Plus Data". Retrieved 2025-03-04.
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
Additional data
To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
