HOUGHTON – There may be a reason Upper Peninsula electric customers are seeing rates frequently increasing that they are not being told about.

According an article in the Duluth News Tribune dated Aug 21, 2016, Michigan residents will pay for two new power plants being built by WEC Energy group of Milwaukee which largely benefit Cliffs Natural Resources.

WEC announced in late July an agreement with Cliffs to build a $225 million power generation project “that will be paid for by the company’s customers in Michigan,” the article stated.

The agreement’s provisions include a commitment by Cliffs to purchase power from WEC Energy for 20 years. Cliffs will pay for half the cost of the new generation, while U.P. customers will pay the other half, the article stated. We Energies of Milwaukee and Wisconsin Public Service of Green Bay, have proposed to shift their Michigan customers to a new U.P.-based utility, dubbed Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp.

“Cliffs views this agreement as critical to sustaining and enhancing the long-term competitiveness of our Tilden Mine,” Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves is quoted as saying.

While it may be a benefit for Cliffs, it will cost U.P. electricity customers more, as part of plans enacted last year in Lansing. Downstate residents have been hit, too.

“Electricity prices at the state’s two largest utilities will increase for individuals and decrease for commercial and industrial users under plans recently approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission,” stated a July 7, 2015 article on the MLive website (www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/07/electricity_prices_to_increase.html).

To find out if and how customers of the Upper Peninsula Power Company are being affected, The Daily Mining Gazette has tried numerous times to contact UPPCO officials over a period of weeks, but they have not returned telephone calls or emails.

The Duluth News Tribune article can be viewed at www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/energy/4098833-natural-gas-replace-coal-fired-power-plant-michigans-upper-peninsula.