The Michigan Public Service Commission approved a proposal from DTE Energy this week to allow the company to switch the type of natural gas that some of its Northern Michigan pipelines carry.
This move will help the DTE pipelines be more environmentally friendly and sustainable, the commission said.
Wet gas, which the lines had been carrying, contains water and other impurities. Officials said it’s a riskier product to transport. Dry gas is a purer product, containing about 85% methane.
This project came about as a result of an investigation requested by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after a cold snap during a polar vortex in January 2019 caused a state of emergency. Around this time, a fire at a Macomb County compressor station threatened to disrupt some of DTE’s transportation stations.
The review, conducted by the public service commission, prompted DTE to request the project to diversify its sources of natural gas and prevent future supply disruptions.
This certificate will give DTE gas more routes of gas distribution.
The commission expects the project to cost $28 million. This project will build and maintain two connector pipelines, including the $7 million Rogers City Connector.
“This project will provide additional pipeline connections and supply sources to DTE gas,” said Dan Chislea, the manager of the commission’s gas operations section. “As part of DTE gas’s overall system review, including initial feedback from state agencies, it identified areas with single source supply and sufficient market impact and potential outages.”
The public service commission has yet to rule on whether to raise customer rates to fund the project.