An out-of-state private equity firm shouldn’t have ownership of 13 Michigan dams

A Michigan judge has recommended the state Public Service Commission reject Consumers Energy's plan to sell 13 aging hydroelectric dams to Confluence Hydro, a private equity-backed buyer, for one dollar. Under the deal, ratepayers would be required to buy the dams' electricity at an inflated price while Consumers walks away with hundreds of millions in profit.

The op-ed's author, a researcher on private equity's infrastructure footprint, notes that Confluence's parent firm, Hull Street Energy, has sold 46 of the 47 dams it has acquired since 2017. The piece points to Michigan's 2020 Edenville and Sanford dam failures, which followed years of deferred maintenance by private owners and caused hundreds of millions in damage and mass displacement, as a cautionary precedent.

The author also cites rate hikes following private equity utility acquisitions elsewhere, including a 20% increase for Indiana's NIPSCO customers after Blackstone took a board seat, and a $10 million rate increase request within four years of a private equity takeover of Michigan's Upper Peninsula Power Company.

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