Dive Brief:

• Consumers Energy will retire 950 MW of coal-fired generation in Michigan after state regulators approved a plan to issue $390 million in securitization bonds to fully recover the cost of building the plants.
• Consumers Energy wanted to issue $453 million in bonds to recoup the unrecovered book value of the three plants.
• The plants were too old and inefficient to be worth the cost of new pollution control equipment to meet Clean Air Act standards.

Dive Insight:

With coal plants around the country facing retirement expect to see other state regulators approve plans for utilities to issue securitization bonds to fully recover their investments in the plants.