MUSKEGON — Consumers Energy announced Friday the beginning of the end of the venerable B.C. Cobb Generating Plant in Muskegon.

The public utility on Friday said the two remaining coal-fired units at B.C. Cobb will cease operations by Jan. 1, 2015. Cobb's two units are among seven smaller coal-generating units statewide that will be closed.

The Cobb plant has been an imposing structure on the east end of Muskegon Lake since it was built in 1948 — known by its 650-foot smokestack.

It was named after Bernard Capen Cobb — company president from 1915-1934.

It has outlived its projected 50-year life span after Consumers pumped millions of dollars in upgrading and retrofitting the 320-megawatt plant the past two decades.

The future for the Cobb facilities that sit on the Causeway between the north and south branches of the Muskegon River in Muskegon and North Muskegon is an unknown. The valuable 300-acre waterfront site has been home to a power plant the past 63 years.

The closure of the Cobb plant likely will eliminate the jobs of the plant's 116 workers. The estimated $4.1 million in property taxes paid by the Consumers on the Cobb plant also likely will be lost to local governments and school districts. The plant is the largest single taxpayer in Muskegon County.

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The announcement of the plant's closing was accompanied by Consumers officials announcing the cancellation of the proposed $2 billion clean coal plant near Bay City. Muskegon County's Wastewater Management System also had been considered as a location for a new clean coal plant.

In addition, the company said it would spend $1.6 billion in environmental equipment upgrades for its remaining five major coal fired-units — three of which are at the J.H. Campbell Operating Complex in Port Sheldon Township, between Grand Haven and Holland.

“We expect these substantial investments will create more than 2,000 construction jobs in Michigan and provide significant emissions reductions that will continue our ongoing efforts to help make Michigan's air the cleanest it has been in generations,” said Consumers President and CEO John Russell.

The investments in the Campbell plant are being made due to its new equipment and environmental technology, company officials said. Older plants, like B.C. Cobb, are less efficient, costlier to operate and generate more pollution.

B.C. Cobb plant 30 Gallery: B.C. Cobb plant

The closure of coal unites at the Cobb plant, J.R. Whiting plant near Luna Pier and the Karn/Weadock Plant near Bay City are due to the same factors that canceled the company's plans for a clean coal plant.

The closure of the seven smaller, older coal units and the environmental improvements to its remaining generating units will reduced Consumers power plant emissions by 90 percent, company officials said.

The company's decisions on the future of the generating facilities is based on a reduced demand for electricity in Michigan among its 6.8 million customers, which is linked to the Great Recession and slow economic recovery, company officials said.

The Upper Midwest also has a surplus of generating capacity, and lower natural gas prices linked to expanded shale gas supplies are additional reasons Consumers does not need as many coal plants. The B.C. Cobb plant currently provides electricity to 200,000 people.

“Lower natural gas prices make new coal-fired power plants less economically attractive,” company officials said of a plan to use natural gas to generate electricity.

The Cobb plant originally was built with three coal-fired generators. Units 1, 2 and 3 were retired in 1990. However, the company converted Units 1 and 3 to natural gas for use during times of peak power demands.

The current Units 4 and 5 were added to the plant in 1956 and 1957, respectively. Much of the bulk cargo shipped into Muskegon each year is low-sulfur western coal, of which the plant consumes about 1 million tons annually.

Along with the current energy market forces, Consumers' decisions also were made based on future expectations of energy savings from efficiency measures and additional generation from alternative sources of power. Consumers Energy now is constructing the 100-megawatt Lake Winds Energy Park, a commercial wind farm in southern Mason County.

“We want customers to know they can count on us to make sure we have enough power to meet their needs,” Russell said in a prepared statement.

Email: dalexander@muskegonchronicle.com