The Presque Isle Power Plant was a

coal power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

located at

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

, on the shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. The plant has 5 inactive generating units with a total net generating capacity of 431 Megawatts. This plant has two smokestacks in height and was built in 1955 by

Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., formerly Cliffs Natural Resources, is a Cleveland, Ohio-based company that specializes in the mining, beneficiation, and pelletizing of iron ore, as well as steelmaking, including stamping and tooling. It is the largest f ...

. Units 1 and 2 were retired on January 1, 2007. Units 3 and 4 were retired on October 1, 2009. Units 5 through 9 went into service between 1975 and 1979 and were retired in March 2019. This plant generated 90% of the Upper Peninsula's electricity and 12% of the electricity in the

Wisconsin Energy WEC Energy Group is an American company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that provides electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states. Subsidiaries Wisconsin * We Energies, the umbrella name for Wisconsin Electric Power ...

system. Half of the plants generating capacity goes to the Empire and Tilden iron ore mines on the nearby

Marquette Iron Range The Marquette Iron Range is a deposit of iron ore located in Marquette County, Michigan in the United States. The towns of Ishpeming and Negaunee developed as a result of mining this deposit. A smaller counterpart of Minnesota's Mesabi Range, thi ...

. The plant was sold to UPPCO in the early 1980s as Cleveland-Cliffs struggled, and it is now owned by Wisconsin Energy. The plant is connected to the grid by numerous 138-kilovolt transmission lines and one 345-kilovolt line known as the Presque Isle–Plains–Morgan line which runs from Marquette southwest to Plains Substation near Iron Mountain and south to the Morgan Substation just outside

Oconto Falls, Wisconsin Oconto Falls is a city in Oconto County, Wisconsin, Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,891 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of the Green Bay, Wisconsin, Green Bay Green Bay metropolitan area, Metr ...

, where it ties into other 345-kilovolt lines going south towards

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

and Appleton and west towards

Wausau, Wisconsin Wausau ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. The Wisconsin River divides the city into east and west. The city's suburbs include Schofield, Weston, Mosinee, Maine, Rib Mountain, Kronenwetter, and ...

, and

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

. In 2006, the plant incorporated a new process for capturing and reducing

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

emissions. We Energies has indicated that it may be forced to permanently shut down the Presque Isle plant in 2017 as it may not be able to meet new EPA pollution standards that will be in place at that time, though in 2012 there was an announcement of investment to upgrade the facility to meet standards

We Energies and American Transmission Company are looking at building two new 345,000 volt transmission lines from Wisconsin to the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...

of Michigan. If the new lines are built, one would go from

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

Ishpeming, Michigan Ishpeming ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,470 at the 2010 census, less than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when the iron ore mines employed more workers. A statue of ...

and the second 345kv line would go from the

Weston Power Plant The Weston Generating Station, also known as the Weston Power Plant, is a base load, coal fired, electric power, electrical power station located in the villages of Rothschild, Wisconsin, Rothschild and Kronenwetter, Wisconsin, Kronenwetter in Ma ...

near

north to Marquette. On March 31, 2019, the plant was decommissioned and its generating capacity was replaced with two new gas fired power plants: A.J. Mihm Generating Station and F.D. Kuester Generating Station.

References

{{Reflist Energy infrastructure completed in 1955 Towers completed in 1955 Energy infrastructure completed in 1975 Energy infrastructure completed in 1979 Buildings and structures in Marquette, Michigan Coal-fired power stations in Michigan 1955 establishments in Michigan

See also

References