MGE looks to buy share in gas plant, says fuel switch will speed carbon reduction

By Chris Hubbuch

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    MADISON, Wisconsin (madison.com/Wisconsin State Journal) — Madison Gas and Electric says it is accelerating its plans to cut carbon emissions while proposing new investments in fossil fuel generation.

The utility announced Monday that it has a deal to purchase up to 50 megawatts of capacity from a natural gas plant in Beloit, which it says is needed to replace a coal-fired plant slated for early retirement.

Calling natural gas a “bridge fuel on our path toward a net-zero carbon future,” MGE says the move, combined with investments in clean energy sources, will allow it to cut 80% of its baseline carbon emissions by the end of this decade.

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“We’re committed to doing everything we can do today to advance our deep decarbonization strategies as quickly and as cost-effectively as we can while maintaining our top-ranked electric reliability and our responsibility to those we serve,” MGE President and CEO Jeff Keebler said in a statement.

But environmentalists and policy experts say new investments in fossil fuels are not in line with widely accepted steps needed to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Greg Nemet, a UW-Madison professor who specializes in energy policy, said utilities need to begin shutting down gas plants, and acquisitions like this cast doubt on ambitious decarbonization goals.

“We want to see less demand for gas-fired electricity, not new purchases of it,” Nemet said. “If we are trying to reduce emissions by 80% in the next eight years, we should be investing rapidly and heavily in clean energy and energy efficiency.”

MGE says it is seeking regulatory approval to buy a 25-megawatt share of Alliant Energy’s recently completed 725-megawatt West Riverside plant for about $25 million with an option to buy an additional 25 megawatts.

According to the utility, the additional capacity is required to replace its 211-megawatt share of the coal-fired Columbia Energy Center near Portage, which is scheduled to shut down by 2025, roughly 15 years earlier than originally planned.

Regulators have approved MGE’s investment of more than $80 million in 59 megawatts of new wind and solar projects expected to come online in the next two years and are currently evaluating proposals to invest about $152 million in solar and battery storage projects that would provide another 110 megawatts of capacity.

MGE also owns a roughly 100-megawatt share of the Elm Road coal plant in Oak Creek, which We Energies plans to convert to burn all natural gas by 2035.

Natural gas releases roughly half as much carbon dioxide as coal and a fraction of pollutants like sulfur and mercury. But its production and transportation results in the release of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas, negating most of the environmental advantages.

A United Nations panel of scientists last year reported unprecedented changes to the global climate as a direct result of human activity and warned that greenhouse gas emissions must be virtually eliminated by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic outcomes.

To meet that goal, the International Energy Agency says new investments in fossil fuel supply projects must stop immediately.

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