Microsoft Lowell Township site

The project

Electrical demand

No capacity figure on the record

Developer

Microsoft, after an earlier application by Franklin Partners

End user

Microsoft

Serving utility

Consumers Energy

Site size

237 acres

Last checked October 23, 2026. Every field above has been confirmed against the sources listed.

What has happened

Every entry carries the source it came from. Where the record gives no date, the entry says so rather than being placed by guesswork.

1. December 8, 2025The Planning Commission hearing on the rezoning was postponed because turnout exceeded the hall's capacity. Lowell Charter Township
2. December 18, 2025The township put Franklin Partners' rezoning application on hold after the applicant asked for an indefinite suspension of the application and its approval process. Lowell Charter Township
3. May 18, 2026The Township Board voted 5–2 against a six-month data center moratorium and created an advisory committee instead. Lowell Charter Township
4. June 8, 2026Microsoft's own proposal — a conditional rezoning of several Covenant Business Park parcels and a text amendment adding data centers as a use in the LI Light Industrial district — was set for introduction at the Planning Commission. It goes to the Township Board after Planning Commission review. Lowell Charter Township

Where the sources disagree

EDRA of Michigan (updated June 2026) reports that the City of Lowell revoked its co-development agreement with the township and that Lowell’s mayor called the project dead. The township’s own page treats Microsoft’s rezoning request as pending, and a statement to the press is not a withdrawn application, so the township’s record governs the status. The outcome of the 8 June 2026 Planning Commission meeting is not on the township’s page.

Published rather than resolved. Picking a favourite number and printing it alone is how a tracker becomes an opinion.

What Consumers Energy customers pay, before and now

Those figures are Consumers Energy’s own EIA-861 filings and they cover the whole territory. This page does not attribute any part of that change to Microsoft Lowell Township site. It could not honestly: the change spans years in which this project did not exist, rates move for generation costs, storm recovery, tree trimming and approved return on equity all at once, and the large-load terms the Commission has approved are written specifically to keep these costs off other customers’ bills. Whether they succeed is an open question in front of the Commission, not a settled fact this site can assert.

What actually did change Consumers Energy rates, case by case →

The terms a large load takes service under here

Consumers Energy operates under U-21859, approved November 6, 2025. Amended the General Service Primary Demand tariff to set standard terms for very large customers, rather than negotiating each one privately.

Who it applies to

New customers with 100 MW or more at one site, or an aggregated 100 MW across sites under common ownership with at least 20 MW each.

Contract length

At least 15 years, renewing automatically in 5-year terms absent four years' notice.

Minimum billing demand

After any ramp-up, the customer pays for at least 80% of contracted demand whether or not it uses it.

Financial assurance

A letter of credit or cash deposit sufficient to cover the exit fee, posted up front.

Exit fee

Minimum billing demand multiplied by the months remaining, including infrastructure costs. Capacity may be cut up to 10% on four years' notice without penalty; deeper cuts are pro-rated or reviewed by the Commission.

Cost-shift test

Before serving a large-load customer, Consumers must file an ex parte application demonstrating costs are not being shifted onto other customers. A $100,000 administrative fee covers project evaluation.

• Michigan Public Service Commission: MPSC approves terms of service between Consumers Energy and data centers, other very large customers; adds protections for existing customers

Sources

Everything above traces to one of these. Local agendas and FAQ pages get replaced in place rather than archived, so each carries the date it was read.

1. [1] Map of AI data centers in Michigan — EDRA of Michigan, read October 23, 2026
2. [2] Covenant Business Park — Lowell Charter Township (primary document), read October 23, 2026

Watch the docket this project runs through

Large-load contracts, tariff changes and the cases contesting them all arrive as Consumers Energy filings. Alerts go out when one is filed and when a comment deadline is set — which is the only window in which a comment counts for anything.