In Michigan, hundreds of miles of additional power-line construction are in the planning stage, with ITC Michigan telling residents it needs more transmission capacity to keep the grid reliable and prepare for renewable generation, extreme weather and rising electricity demand.
ITC Michigan officials said the expansion would add more than 350 miles of new poles and wires over the next few years. The company, which owns and maintains about 9,100 miles of transmission lines that move electricity into, out of and around the Lower Peninsula, said the build-out is meant to cut back on power outages, save ratepayers money and make way for economic growth.
For the near-term, ITC Michigan is starting with a 50-mile, 345-kilovolt segment near Lansing. Officials said the proposed mid-Michigan route runs from Oneida Township, south of Grand Ledge, to Cohoctah Township, north of Fowlerville, before the effort later expands to west, east and southern parts of the state.
After the company selects a preferred route, it plans to seek approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission before negotiating with landowners and clearing an area described by ITC Michigan as about 200 feet wide and 50 miles long to make way for metal poles and wires that would rise more than 125 feet.
During a first round of public engagement, dozens of residents gathered Monday at an Okemos event center to ask questions about the project and press their cases for routing lines away from homes. ITC Michigan staff said they are holding seven open houses in the coming weeks, with residents studying digital maps and entering feedback into a portal.
Some neighbors who live near the prospective routes said they expect the infrastructure to change the character of their communities and could reduce property values. Marilyn Johnson, whose Williamstown Township home sits along one of the proposed routes, said, “Instead of listening to the birds, we’re going to be listening to the buzzing of a high-voltage power line,” describing what she expects from having high-voltage lines near her home.
Others raised concerns that energy infrastructure would bring follow-on development. The company said data-center growth is part of the broader context for the demand it is planning for, and it has said it began thinking about transmission expansion years before Michigan started attracting data-center interest. Opponents, however, said that once a route is built, bigger development projects could follow.
ITC Michigan officials said they are trying to respond to earlier criticism from state energy regulators. The AP report said regulators accused the company of weak public engagement and “lazy” routing during its most recent transmission-line project, and ITC Michigan said it is ramping up outreach for this effort.
Charles Marshall, president of ITC Michigan and vice president of ITC Holdings Corp., acknowledged residents’ concerns while describing the need for a right-of-way. “These aren’t easy conversations to have,” Marshall said. “I recognize that it’s personal property, it’s real estate, and we need a right-of-way.”
The build-out is tied to a broader regional planning process, with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator overseeing the regional grid across 15 Midwestern states and Manitoba, Canada. In 2024, the nonprofit approved $21.8 billion in long-range transmission projects throughout the Midwest under what is known as Tranche 2.1, with projects expected to come online between 2032 and 2034, and officials said additional tranches are planned later.
Midwest grid planners have said Tranche 2.1 projects are expected to deliver benefits that exceed costs by two or three times, and ITC Michigan said transmission lines can help reduce electricity costs by enabling delivery of cheaper power from other regions, such as wind and solar. Marshall said that means building transmission to deliver that energy, adding that “there’s better wind in Iowa” based on geography, and that the grid needs infrastructure to move it into Michigan.
At the same time, Marshall said the company is entering the planning process during what he described as an “infrastructure fatigue” period, as rural communities contend with development pressure from data centers and renewable energy. “It would be naive of me to suggest that there is not some sort of infrastructure fatigue in the state of Michigan,” Marshall said. “Unfortunately, we’re coming a little bit on the heels of that.”
As ITC Michigan gathers input, it said it plans summer open houses for affected landowners and public meetings this fall, and then aims to file a construction plan with state regulators late this year that would include its preferred route and at least one alternative. Matt Helms, a spokesperson for the Michigan Public Service Commission, declined to comment on the forthcoming request.