It’s been a year of growth and innovation for Cloverland Electric Cooperative, all driven by our commitment to serve you, our valued members. Throughout the year, we’ve continued to navigate the ever-changing landscape of the energy industry while staying focused on our mission: delivering reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy solutions. Among the progress of the year and initiatives we’re actively working on:
- Canal maintenance: Power canal work is complete for the year and will resume in 2025 as part of the long-term maintenance plan to ensure the fuel for our hydro plant supports this key renewable source for many years to come.
- Capital work plan: After months of planning, assessment and preliminary stages of approval, staff will work through the approval process to fund the next four-year work plan. This plan contains significant upgrades to our infrastructure to strengthen reliability.
- Sault to Sault tie to Canada: To enhance reliability and stability of our infrastructure, we continue working with interested parties on a transmission line from our service territory to Canada. As Cloverland resides on the tail end of a transmission line, reliability and growth potential are two areas of concern. This plan for a 230kV / 138kV connection involves an interconnection design, bore crossing plan and an economic feasibility study. Ultimately, this tie would provide another source of electricity and opportunity to cost-effectively meet the state’s new energy bill (PA 235) and greatly reduce vulnerabilities given our geographic location.
- Renewable & clean energy bill (PA 235): We’ve been actively planning how we can meet Michigan’s requirement of having 60% renewable resources in place by 2035 and 100% clean energy sources by 2040. Currently our hydro plant produces nearly 30% renewable energy, and the U.S. Corps of Engineers hydro plant at the Soo Locks adds approximately 20% renewable energy to our fuel mix. Clean energy by definition means renewable energy, nuclear or carbon sequestered natural gas which takes careful planning and funding. With each consideration, we must understand the ultimate impact to our membership long term. We will continue to look for opportunities to meet this requirement without significant increase in rates. We are working hard to carefully plan to fulfill future obligations in the best fiduciary way possible.
- Financial stability: We made significant strides financially through strategic management of power supply contracts and vigilant financial oversight. By maintaining a balanced approach, we were able to keep rates steady. Our focus remains on ensuring long-term economic health, so Cloverland can continue to provide affordable energy for years to come. The next evolution in Cloverland’s future will be utilizing our current financial position to improve upon reliability and move initiatives forward to strengthen our infrastructure.
Despite some obstacles to work through, we are FORGING a path to a bright, sustainable future for Cloverland Electric Cooperative. With each step, we are building a stronger, more resilient organization—one that will continue to provide exceptional service, innovative solutions and a deep commitment to our members and community.