Title
Resolution Requesting the Completion of a Feasibility Study Regarding Creation of a Traditional Municipal Electric Utility and an Evaluation of Other Energy Pathways to Achieve the City's Clean Energy Goals, Along with Initiation of Next Steps to Advance a Local Municipal Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU)
Memorandum
On June 1, 2020, Ann Arbor City Council unanimously adopted the A2ZERO Carbon Neutrality Plan, setting the goal of achieving a just transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by the year 2030. Achieving this goal will require action across all scales and sectors of the local community, especially a just transition of our energy system from fossil fuel-based generation to 100% renewable energy-based generation. Recognizing the importance of transitioning our electric grid to renewable energy, in January of 2021, Ann Arbor City Council unanimously adopted a series of Energy Criteria and Principles that lay out the core concepts that the City is looking to maximize as it makes energy-related decisions.
Following the adoption of these Energy Criteria and Principles, the City's Energy Commission began a multi-months long energy education series to dive more deeply into different pathways that could help the City meet its clean energy goals. During this series, the idea of creating a local municipal electric utility emerged. For months the Energy Commission heard comments and presentations about the concept, along with about a dozen other concepts and pathways that could support the City's goal of powering the community with 100% renewable energy.
At their December 2021 session, the Ann Arbor Energy Commission passed a resolution encouraging City Council to simultaneously:
1. Conduct a study assessing the cost and technical feasibility of starting our own traditional municipal electric utility through a buyout process that would replace DTE;
2. Conduct an options analysis to assess the viability of other pathways to transitioning our elec...
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