NEWS

DTE chief: St. Clair online till new plant starts up in 2022

Nicole Hayden
Times Herald
Trevor Lauer, president and chief operating officer of DTE Energy, speaks during the St. Clair County Economic Development Alliance semi-annual luncheon Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 at Alexander's in Marysville.

The St. Clair Power Plant, which was damaged in a massive fire in August, should be fully restored by July.

And while finishing repairs to the plant, DTE Energy will also start wading through the approval process to build an additional proposed natural gas plant in East China, said Trevor Lauer, DTE Electric president.

Lauer addressed a crowd of nearly 200 people at the Economic Development Alliance of St. Clair County’s semi-annual luncheon on Tuesday.

The luncheon reviewed the economic progress of the county in 2016, which included a total of $103 million in business investment which resulted in the creation of 759 new jobs. Dan Casey, EDA director, said the county is at a 5.6 percent unemployment rate, which historically has been considered full employment for the county.

Casey said of the 32 business that expanded operations last year, most of the projects were automotive based.

“Last year we saw a significant investment in our downtown moving us forward,” he said. “This year I think we will see investment in housing, and that’s good, that’s typically the last thing you see in economic development. When you see homes and apartments start to be developed, that’s when you know we have finally hit recovery (from the recession).”

New single home building projects are slated for St. Clair, Ira and Fort Gratiot townships in the coming year.

But the one thing that united all of the economic development projects noted during the luncheon was the keynote speaker. Every company and home in the county buys energy from DTE Energy, and everyone present was eager to hear an update about the company’s investment in the area.

The St. Clair Power Plant at 4901 Pointe Drive sustained a massive fire that began the evening of Aug. 11 and lasted for nearly 24 hours. It took between 80 and 100 firefighters from 30 fire departments to control the flames. About 50 employees were in the plant when the fire started just before 6:30 p.m. that day. All escaped unharmed.

“To see the photos is one thing, but to describe the actuality of the fire once I got there, it’s hard to describe,” Lauer said, as he recalled that night. “We have training for situations like this to make sure everyone is safe, but you never actually expect something like this to happen.”

Lauer said he was thankful for everyone in St. Clair County from the first responders to the neighbors that brought water and food to the site.

Lauer said he expects the plant to be fully operating again by July. Large-scale repairs are still underway in some areas.

He said no jobs were lost in the meantime.

“It was never our plan to shut down the plant and leave,” he said. “We worked hard to keep it running and keep the employees working at the plant.”

In June, DTE officials announced it would cease operating eight of its plants, including the St. Clair location, between 2020 and 2023. Renee McClelland, DTE spokeswoman, said the St. Clair plant is still slated to close in the time frame, but it is necessary to have a fully working power plant to serve customers until then.

As for the new $1 billion plant proposed to sit next to the current Belle River Power Plant in East China, Lauer expects the future plant to start providing energy to customers by 2022.

There is about 1,000 acres of undeveloped land on the Belle River site that has the infrastructure needed to sustain a natural gas plant.

“It’s an exciting project for us, but a long process,” Lauer said. “I am very confident that (St. Clair County) is the right place for us to continue to operate and build power plants.”

The construction of the project would create 600 to 700 jobs over a three-year period. Once built, the actual plant would require 35 to 50 long-term employees. The plant would power 850,000 homes.

But before crews can start building the new plant, it will take about a year to go through the regulation and approval process with the state. Lauer said he is confident the project will move forward.

Contact Nicole Hayden at (810) 989-6279 or nhayden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @nicoleandpig.