The contracts approved include:
The first three energy storage projects will provide a combined 1,000 MW of energy storage capacity to fulfil the settlement agreement in DTE Electric Co.’s most recent approved integrated resource plan. The settlement agreement identified at least a 850 MW need for energy storage projects to fulfil the company’s electric capacity requirements. The approved contracts include a 20-year tolling agreement with the Big Mitten Energy Center in Huron County and self-build contracts for the Fermi Energy Center Project and the Monroe I Energy Center Project in Monroe County.
The approvals move DTE Electric forward in meeting terms of the utility’s most recent integrated resource plan, approved in a 2023 settlement agreement, which among other things called for adding 15,000 MW of solar and wind energy generation in Michigan.
The last three contracts listed are energy storage projects owned and operated by DTE Electric Co. that will serve the 1,383 megawatt data center being developed by Green Chile Ventures LLC in Washtenaw County’s Saline Township (Case No. U-21990) while allowing the utility to improve grid reliability and drive down costs for customers. The Commission approved DTE Electric Co’s application for this data center on Dec. 18, 2025, imposing mandatory safeguards to prevent residential and other customers from subsidizing its costs.
DTE Electric sought approval of the Cold Creek Energy Center, Fish Creek Energy Center and Pine River Energy center, along with the equipment supply agreements for battery modules and the master service agreements for engineering, procurement and construction.
Battery energy storage provides multiple benefits to the grid, by storing excess energy created when it’s cheaper to produce and using the stored energy to provide power during times of peak demand. Energy storage helps ensure grid resilience and speeds up the transition to cleaner sources of electricity. Energy from renewable sources paired with energy storage is significantly cheaper than energy produced from coal or natural gas, reducing costs to customers.
The data center battery storage projects approved are the first 332 MW of 1,383 MW of company-owned energy storage facilities that Green Chile Ventures must foot the bill to develop to match the data center’s contracted demand. The total capacity of the battery storage projects the Commission approved for the data center project on Dec. 18 in Case No. U-21990 is greater than the capacity of DTE Electric’s 1,150 MW Blue Water Energy Center, the most recent natural gas-fired plant built in Michigan, which the MPSC approved in 2018.
Under terms of the approval of the data center, Green Chile Ventures will bear the costs over a 15-year period to develop the energy storage for the project. DTE Electric will develop, own and operate the facilities to benefit its grid, while Green Chile will receive the value of any market revenues from operating the facilities in the wholesale market.
These two sets of storage project approvals in Case No. U-21193 and Case No. U-21990 bring DTE Electric’s total storage capacity to 2,606 MW, among the largest utility energy storage portfolios in the country.
