“To any classroom of children that has visited our 750-acre Biological Field Station, it’s obvious that protecting the environment is as important to us as generating electricity.” “We view environmental stewardship as a basic responsibility. Whether it’s maintaining our bluebird nesting and monitoring project or helping Scouts earn merit badges, we aim to do our part in preserving and enhancing the environment in which we work.”

“We’re dedicated to working safely and delivering reliable electricity to our customers at a fair price, while doing our part to preserve Michigan’s natural resources.”

            — Campbell Employees

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Safety First

Safety is our top priority — for our employees and our customers. That’s why we’ve made safety an integral part of our vision for all of our generating plants throughout Michigan.

Our employees work safely in the plant to help keep themselves and our communities safe. Here are some key ways we put safety first in everything we do: Employees attend regular safety meetings, follow established safety policies and procedures and are provided with and required to wear hard hats, safety glasses, earplugs and other personal protective equipment

• Employees receive regular training on important health, safety and environmental issues that include working in confined spaces and first aid-CPR 
  

Employees bring their award-winning safety knowledge and background into numerous volunteer activities in the communities we serve. They volunteer as firefighters, paramedics, auxiliary police, educators, Red Cross helpers, coaches, scouting leaders and more.

Be sure to visit the Awards and Milestones pages for each plant.

About the Plant

The Campbell Complex is located on a 2,000-acre site along the Lake Michigan shoreline near West Olive, Mich. The complex is named after James H. Campbell, a former company president from 1960-72. Campbell Unit 1 first began providing electricity in 1962. Campbell employees and their families contribute significantly to the local economy each year. In addition, Consumers Energy is the single largest tax payer in Ottawa County and pays about $11 million per year to local government.

How It Works

Operations

The Campbell generating complex consists of three separate coal-fired plants: the 260-megawatt Unit 1, 360-megawatt Unit 2 and the 820-megawatt Unit 3 plant, which includes the largest coal-fueled unit in the company’s fleet. Altogether, the Campbell complex can generate up to 1,440 megawatts, enough to meet the electric needs of 1 million people.

The complex uses about 5 million tons of coal per year. The three coal-fired units are considered baseload, because they are designed to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

To produce electricity, water is piped through miles of steel tubes within a coal-plant’s boiler.  The burning coal heats the water to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As the steam pressure is raised to more than 2,000 pounds per square inch within the main steam line, the steam is routed to a turbine.  Once the pressurized steam hits the turbine, it rotates the turbine blades and shaft attached to the plant’s electric generator.  The generator turns at a constant 3,600 revolutions per minute and synchronizes with the electric transmission system to provide electricity to our customers.

The complex has won several national and company awards for safe operation.

Environmental Commitment

The Campbell Complex is certified by the Wildlife Habitat Council and has affiliated environmental enhancement programs or projects on 1,600 of the site’s 2,000 acres. More than 500 types of trees, plants, animals and fish thrive on the Campbell site. Many are found in the woods and vegetation on a 200-foot-high dune west of the generating units that has been included in the Nature Conservancy's Michigan Natural Areas Registry. Among the rare plants found on the dune is the Pitcher's thistle, an endangered species. Birds of all kinds flock to the site: red-winged blackbirds, killdeer, swallows, ducks, ruffled grouse, blue jays, yellow-shafted flickers, rufus-sided towhees, goldfinches, catbirds and black-capped chickadees. Employees have installed nesting boxes for bluebirds, worked with Boy Scout troops to place wood duck nest boxes, and welcomed the local chapter of the Audubon Society for annual bird counts.  The site is also one of Michigan’s rare nesting sites for peregrine falcons.

A key feature is the site’s Biological Field Station, which hosts many school groups and activities designed to develop an appreciation for environmental stewardship and aquatic and terrestrial habitat studies. The station is one of several environmental outreach activities that helped the site earn its Wildlife Habitat Council certification in 1993.  Use of the Biological Field Station is restricted to school groups and has become a part of the curriculum for 5^th grade science students in the area. 

The site meets strict state and federal environmental regulations for power plant operations through continually monitoring and analyzing the air, water and soil at Campbell. Keeping the emissions clear from the plant’s stacks is accomplished by capturing 99 percent of the ash produced from coal combustion.  Tiny particles called fly ash are removed from stack emissions with devices that use static electricity to trap the particles. These particles are blown through pipes by air pressure to an onsite storage facility. Some of the ash is removed from the site and used in concrete manufacturing.  The balance of the ash is contained in a landfill, where it is shaped into mounds and seeded with hardy grass.

Only coal with less than one percent sulfur content is burned at the Campbell complex to help ensure compliance with Michigan's clean-air standards.  Additionally, great progress is being made at the site with the installation of advanced-technology equipment to control other power plant emissions and make Campbell among the most advanced coal-fired power plant sites in the Midwest.  

Cooling water for Campbell Unit 3 is drawn from a submerged intake in deep water offshore in Lake Michigan.  The clean cooling water used in all three units is discharged into a water cooling canal and then pumped underground to Lake Michigan and sent through  a diffuser system offshore. The nozzles mix the warm discharge water with Lake Michigan water, minimizing temperature increases in adjacent water.

To protect groundwater quality, the site has its own sanitary treatment system and monitoring wells.

Awards

1999: The National Safety Council recognizes employees with the Industry Leader award, presented to facilities with safety performance in the top 5 percent of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s utility group.

2000: The National Safety Council recognizes employees for completing previous year with no lost-time injuries.

2001: The Campbell complex was honored as one of the first 54 sites to achieve certification under the Wildlife Habitat Council’s new “Corporate Lands for Learning” program, which recognizes sites' environmental education activities.

Community Support

Besides participating in an annual United Way fundraising campaign, employees and retirees are active in many organizations in the communities where they live and work.

The Consumers Energy Foundation provides Volunteer Investment Program (VIP) grants that can be used to support these worthwhile activities.

Since 1992, the foundation has awarded VIP grants totaling $1.5 million to more than 3,200 organizations on behalf of nearly 4,900 employees and retirees.

To learn more about employee and retiree volunteer efforts, please visit the Consumers Energy Foundation.

Quick Facts

Employees: about 310

Safety: The complex has won several national and company awards for safe operation. Employees place great value on being safe at work. They believe that coming home safely at the end of the day is the best gift they can give their families.

Plant Site: The 2,000-acre site includes 1,600 acres dedicated to wildlife habitat enhancement. The site’s Biological Field Station helps students study environmental stewardship and aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

Electric Generating Capacity: 1,440 megawatts, enough to meet the electric needs of a million people.

Fuel: Campbell Unit 1 burns 100 percent western coal.  The other units burn a blend of eastern and low-sulfur western coal. The eastern coal is delivered to the plant from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, while the western coal makes its way from Wyoming and Montana. The complex consumes about 5 million tons of coal per year.

Generating Units: Units 1 and 2 began operating in 1962 and 1967, respectively. Unit 3 began operating in 1980. The units are considered baseload units because they generally operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Stack Height: Campbell units 1 and 2 share a 400-foot stack. The unit 3 stack is 650-feet high.

Economic Impact: Campbell employees and their families contribute significantly to the local economy each year. In addition, Consumers Energy pays more than $11 million per year in property taxes to local government.

Milestones

1962: Campbell unit 1 begins operating.

1967: Campbell unit 2 begins operating.

1980: Campbell unit 3 begins operating.

1993: Campbell complex certified by Wildlife Habitat Council as a wildlife habitat site.

2000: Campbell complex recertified by Wildlife Habitat Council as a wildlife habitat site.

2004: Two peregrine falcons nest for the first time on one of the plant’s stacks and raise three offspring.

2004: Consumers Energy begins construction of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emissions reduction project at Unit 3 to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions.