Midland Cogeneration Venture

The Midland Cogeneration Venture (MCV) is a natural gas-fired electrical and steam co-generation plant in Midland, Michigan owned by Midland Cogeneration Venture Limited Partnership. When it began operation in 1991, it was the largest gas-fired steam recovery power plant in the world.^[1]

Originally designed as the Midland Nuclear Power Plant, the initial design called for two Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactors. Reactor one was designed with a 460 MWe rating, and reactor two with a 808 MWe rating. The design called for once-through steam generators (OTSGs) similar to those at Oconee. Consumers Power abandoned the project, which was 85% complete, in 1984 citing numerous construction problems, most notably a sinking foundation. These problems included sinking and cracking of some buildings on the site due to poor soil compaction prior to construction,^[2] as well as shifting regulatory requirements following the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island. Construction was also opposed by environmentalists, led by Midland resident, Mary P. Sinclair.^[3][4]

By then, 17 years and US$4 billion had been invested in the project. Consumers Power, nearly bankrupted by the project, formed a holding company, CMS Energy for it to be a subsidiary of and eventually changed its name to Consumers Energy.

Conversion of the plant began in 1986 and was completed at a cost of $500 million, almost twice the original estimate of the nuclear facility.^[3] First electrical production occurred in 1991. The plant produces 1,560 Megawatts of electricity for Consumers and 1.35 million pounds per hour of industrial steam for Dow Chemical. The electrical capacity is approximately 10% of the power consumption for the lower peninsula of Michigan.^[1]

On July 17, 2002, one of the unused 84-ton nuclear reactor vessel heads was removed from its containment building for transportation to Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Toledo, Ohio, where it replaced a damaged vessel head on a reactor built by the same contractor as the Midland units, B&W.

Consumers owned a 49 percent share in Midland Cogeneration Venture until 2006. Eight other companies owned the remaining 51 percent. In mid-December 2012 Midland Cogeneration Venture was purchased by Borealis Infrastructure.

References

• Hylton, Richard D. (1989-09-25). "Market Place; Nuclear Write-Off To Success Story". The New York Times.