Presque Isle Power Plant
The Presque Isle Power Plant is an electric generating plant located at 46°34′45″N 87°23′47″W / 46.57917°N 87.39639°W in Marquette, Michigan on the shore of Lake Superior. The plant has 9 generating units with a total net generating capacity of 617 megawatts. This plant has two smokestacks 450' in height and was built in 1955. Units #5 through #9 went into service between 1975 and 1979.[1]
This plant generates 90% of the Upper Peninsula's electricity and 12% of the electricity in the Wisconsin Energy system. Half of the plants generating capacity goes to the Empire and Tilden iron ore mines on the nearby Marquette Iron Range.
The plant is owned by Wisconsin Energy and is connected to the grid by numerous 138kV transmission lines and one 345kV line known as the Presque Isle-Plains-Morgan line which runs from Marquette southwest to Iron Mountain and south to Appleton, Wisconsin where it ties into numerous other 345kV lines going south towards Milwaukee and west towards Wausau, Wisconsin and St. Paul, Minnesota.
In 2006, the plant incorporated a new process for capturing and reducing mercury emissions.[2]