In Michigan, data centers are a major issue. In December 2025, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) issued a conditional ex parte approval of electric service contracts for a massive “hyperscale” data center proposed for Saline Township. The approval does not take effect unless DTE Energy formally accepts the Commission’s conditions. The extensive list of protective conditions that were added to the contract are a testament to the unprecedented level of advocacy championed by Sierra Club, our volunteers and grassroots community activists. Check out this link for a full list of conditions that were added here.
Even so, the decision was made without a full contested case, meaning the Michigan Attorney General (AG), consumer advocates and environmental organizations like Sierra Club, were not able to formally test DTE’s assumptions before conditions were set. While the MPSC had access to the full filing, the public and AG were only able to view a highly redacted set of documents.
Douglas Jester, managing partner of 5 Lakes Energy, explained during a public presentation how DTE proposes to come up with the energy needed to fulfill the needs of the Saline Township Data Center, and why this “hyperscale” data center will undercut the goals set in Michigan’s clean energy law.
To understand this plan, people need to understand the concept of peaker plants.
Demand for electricity is variable and is highest in the summer. Because of this variability, not all of DTE’s power plants are running all the time. The plants that are only used during high power demand are called peaker plants. These peaker plants are generally the most inefficient, expensive and most polluting of all the plants in their fleet.
DTE plans to use these polluting peaker plants during non-peak times and to store electricity in batteries to accommodate the power demand from data centers. Originally, the plan proposed storing electricity in batteries when solar and wind were producing excess electricity. This stored energy would be used later when solar and wind could not meet grid demand. Instead of batteries helping to advance the state’s clean energy goals, DTE’s plan will use highly polluting, expensive peaker plants to enable the operation of just this one gigawatt (GW) Saline data center. However, DTE has been clear that they are in advanced discussions with companies about three more gigawatts of data centers. Since the Saline project will max out the current “excess” capacity by running peaker plants around the clock, how will the additional three GWs of incoming data centers be powered?
In 2023, the Michigan Legislature enacted major clean energy standards requiring utilities to significantly increase renewable generation and reduce carbon emissions. 2023 Energy Legislation. MPSC Chair Dan Scripps has correctly stated that the Commission is a “creature of statute,” obligated to implement these laws.
However, the approval of these extremely large loads before the clean energy build-out has been procured, and before it has been shown how they will meet this additional load dramatically increases the likelihood that DTE will not meet the clean energy goals as required by statute. In practice, the risk is that fast approval of multiple GWs of data centers will allow DTE to apply for an exemption from the clean energy law, potentially allowing them to not only run peaker plants longer hours, but to invest billions of dollars into new dirty fossil fuel plants.
This would delay DTE’s ability to meet the state’s clean energy standards by decades and thus undercut the intent of the Michigan legislature to reduce carbon emissions.
It remains to be seen whether the MPSC has failed in their obligations to the public, especially because of the unprecedented limits on public review and comment before their ruling on the Saline data center. The lack of transparency from the redacted submission and the absence of public input raise growing concerns that this will be a spreading trend in Michigan. To safeguard from this lack of transparency, the Sierra tainClub and the Attorney General have filed for a rehearing to ensure that the conditions set in the MPSC conditional approval are actually enforceable.
See the legislative update in this edition of the Michigan Chapter Update for information on efforts underway in the Michigan Legislature.
There are currently 11 large or hyperscale data centers proposed throughout Michigan. Find out how you can help in the Sierra Club’s work on data centers by emailing volunteer@michigan.sierraclub.org.
Thanks to Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com for his contributions to this blog.