Marquette Shiras Steam Plant set to be demolished later this year
MARQUETTE — The Marquette Shiras Steam Plant is set to be demolished later this year; this was decided by Marquette Board of Light and Power on Tuesday.
The decision to permanently retire and demolish the plant comes after it was taken offline in June. Due to operational costs it is not a viable asset to the system of operations or reliability.
Marquette BLP is now relying on the new natural-gas fueled Marquette Energy Center to provide power for customers. The Shiras Steam Plant won’t be entirely missed since new the center will also provide more power and even more savings for the customers over the next 20 years.
“The Marquette Energy Center and along with our combustion turbine can supply more power than has ever been consumed by Marquette in any given time in its history,” explained Executive Director of Marquette Board of Light and Power, Tom Carpenter. “So we are covered from an operational stand point. What that’s going to mean economically is we will be able to operate in a way that can save the community over $100 billion dollars in 20 years.”
The Shiras Steam Plant was the main supply of power to the Marquette community for 50 years, but will soon be re-purposed for community use in other ways that have yet to be determined.
The demolition is expected to be completed within 2 years after demolition begins.
There will be no layoffs as a result of closing the plant as well.