by
WonderfulMI
Aug 14, 2010
The Ludington Pumped Storage Facility information can be found at http://www.consumersenergy.com/uploadedFiles/CEWEB/SHARED/LudingtonPumpedStorage.pdf
The coal fired plants that Consumer's Power uses can run at an efficient even power production. When demand drops, excess power is shunted to Ludington. When demand increases, power is generated at Ludington. This evens out the generation process, and eliminates the need to build another power plant. Additionally, coal fired powerplants take hours to change generation levels, so this provides a quicker response time to fluctuations.