Deal Timeline

Plotted by close date where disclosed, otherwise announcement. Select any marker to jump to the deal entry.

$810M
May 2023
New Covert Generating F…

The Rationale That Repeats.

Three patterns show up across CMS ENERGY's deal book — what the team buys, how it pays, and how it integrates. The patterns are the throughline; the deals below are the evidence.

01
Acquisition criteria
Buy generation, don't build it, to bridge the coal exit.
Consumers Energy's one material acquisition of the era was an existing, already-interconnected gas plant rather than a greenfield build. Acquiring the 1,176-MW Covert combined-cycle station gave Consumers dispatchable capacity to replace retiring coal units while it scaled solar and wind, avoiding the cost and lead time of new construction.
New Covert Generating Facility (Covert Generating Station)
02
Capital deployment
A utility defined by divestitures, not acquisitions.
CMS Energy's corporate history runs the opposite direction from a serial acquirer: through the 2000s it sold off most of its non-utility and international assets, and it divested EnerBank USA to Regions Bank in 2021 and the Palisades nuclear plant in 2006. Acquisitions are the exception, made only when they directly serve the regulated Michigan utility.
New Covert Generating Facility (Covert Generating Station)
03
Integration approach
Regulatory approval is the deal, not just a formality.
As a regulated utility, Consumers' Covert purchase was conditioned on FERC and Michigan Public Service Commission approval, Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and MISO reconnection — a roughly two-year gap between the June 2021 signing and the May 2023 close. Asset deals here live or die on the regulatory record, not on bid-ask negotiation.
New Covert Generating Facility (Covert Generating Station)

The Full Deal Book

1 acquisitions. Each entry carries the deal value, financing structure, target revenue, executive commentary, and the original SEC filing — the evidence behind the patterns above.

01 New Covert Generating Facility (Covert Generating Station) · Van Buren County, Michigan $810M
Announced Jun 2021• Closed May 2023 •all cash
1176-MW natural gas-fired combined cycle generationdispatchable baseload/peaking capacityMidcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) interconnection

A 1,176-megawatt (1,200-MW nameplate) natural gas-fired combined cycle generating plant located in Van Buren County, Michigan, purchased by Consumers Energy from New Covert Generating Company, LLC, a non-affiliated company. Consumers signed the Purchase and Sale Agreement on June 21, 2021 and completed the purchase in May 2023 for $810 million, with an additional $2 million paid in August 2023 under a post-closing working capital adjustment. The acquisition was a centerpiece of Consumers Energy's Clean Energy Plan to exit coal generation, adding dispatchable natural gas capacity to bridge the transition.

Why it was attractive
  • An existing
  • already-interconnected combined-cycle gas plant gave Consumers dispatchable capacity to replace retiring coal units (Campbell
  • Karn) without building new generation
  • supporting reliability through the coal-to-clean transition
We are proud to lead Michigan's clean energy transformation and be one of the first utilities in the country to end coal use. We are committed to being a force of change and good stewards of our environment, producing reliable, affordable energy for our customers while caring for our communities during this transition.Garrick Rochow — President and CEO, Consumers Energy

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