There is good news coming out of Governor Whitmer’s office this week (see news release here), as her Office, in conjunction with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), announced a decision to allow commercial solar development on Michigan farmland enrolled in PA 116. This opens up an additional 3.4 million acres in Michigan for solar development. 

We've seen even more related good news from the Michigan Public Service Commission (see news release here) who has indicated that it has approved Consumers Energy’s integrated resource plan, with key features that include:

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• Conducting annual competitive bidding administered by an independent third party for adding power generation capacity, including 1,200 MW of new solar energy from 2019-21. Consumers can own up to half of all the future additional capacity that it procures through competitive bidding and it must buy the remaining electricity through power purchase agreements with third parties, excluding Consumers affiliates.
• Modified the avoided cost rates and terms set in Case No. U-18090 for small, alternative power producers under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. These changes include a five-year planning horizon (instead of 10 years) when determining whether the company needs additional capacity; updated avoided cost rates for energy from the independent producers based on wholesale power prices or forecasts; and capacity rates based on the company’s competitive bidding results.
• Approval of a financial compensation mechanism for power purchase agreements the company enters into with third-party power suppliers, including power producers under PURPA, as authorized by the 2016 energy laws to remove disincentives to arrange supplies from third parties.

 
NTH is in a prime position to help developers and utilities with their solar projects as we have the local knowledge and expertise through our Detroit, Northville, Lansing, and Grand Rapids offices. Early on in a new development, NTH can assist with the planning; including ecological studies, wetland delineations, Phase I & II site investigations, site civil engineering, and geotechnical engineering. Then as projects move forward, NTH can assist with permitting and regulatory requirements, as well as construction services and material testing. And as the project comes online, NTH can execute post construction surveys, mitigation, and habitat restoration that may be required.
 
Learn how NTH can support you through the development of your solar projects by contacting Rob Bates, Senior Project Scientist at 248.662.2038 or rbates@nthconsultants.com. You can learn more about our services here as well. 

NTH today announced that Brett Schwenke joined the company as a Principal Scientist, bringing his expertise in environmental solutions in the energy, mining, solid waste and transportation markets, to support our clients. Mr. Schwenke is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience in environmental consulting, wildlife biology, habitat restoration, and project management. Prior to joining NTH, Mr. Schwenke served in various leadership positions for engineering and environmental services firms where he developed an environmental / construction services division and led teams of compliance specialists, engineers, and surveyors. He has served as Principal and Senior Consultant for a natural resources consulting firm focusing on state and federal permitting, regulatory resources, inland lakes and streams, petroleum conveyance, natural gas conveyance, non-metallic mining, solid waste, roads and bridges, multi-use trails, renewable energy, and overhead and underground utilities. 
 
“Brett is an important strategic hire for us due to his extensive environmental background supporting utilities in both the public and private sectors,” said Jeffrey P. Jaros, COO and EVP at NTH Consultants. “We look forward to Brett strengthening our renewable energy initiatives as we expand our expertise and technical capabilities. He will be a valuable asset as we support our clients in their efforts to move toward cleaner, renewable energy systems.” 
 
Mr. Schwenke is a graduate of Northern Michigan University with a degree in Environmental Science. He served in the U.S. Army as a Bridge Specialist/Combat Engineer where he received a letter of commendation and multiple decorations. Mr. Schwenke has been involved with, and served in, leadership positions with numerous private and public sector groups and associations. They include the North American Waterfowl Management Plan Steering Committee, the Marquette County Solid Waste Management Authority, the Marquette Area Wastewater Treatment Facility Advisory Board, the Community Mental Health Board of the Central UP, Midland County Parks & Recreation Commission, and the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Marquette County. 
 
Mr. Schwenke joins our team of professionals that specialize in providing sustainable solutions to complex problems. Our specific services include environmental assessments, ecological studies, EA / EIS assistance, NEPA Assistance, habitat mitigation, wetland delineations for new combustion turbine plants, renewable energy, and transmission and distribution (linear facilities).

​About NTH Consultants, Ltd.
NTH Consultants, Ltd. (NTH) has been providing professional engineering consulting services to the energy, urban renewal, water resources and infrastructure markets since 1968. From a small, Detroit-based, geotechnical engineering firm, our company has grown significantly providing a wide range of services in geotechnical engineering, environmental engineering, and facilities engineering. For more than 50 years, NTH has helped our clients address some of the most challenging and complex issues facing our environment today and provides innovative and creative approaches for each project it undertakes. NTH is constantly exploring new technologies and solutions that are safe, well-developed, and cost effective for its clients. NTH is headquartered in Northville, MI and serves its diverse client base from five offices throughout Michigan and Ohio.  

​NTH is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company, which means we are an employee-owned firm. We recognize that job seekers want to make the best decision for their future, so we want to make sure prospective employees understand the advantages of working for an ESOP company, and why joining NTH could be the next best step in their careers.
 
One of the biggest benefits of working at an ESOP company is that it can provide an employee with significant retirement assets, in addition to a 401(k). Since stock is allocated to each employee’s account based on a contribution by the company, the employee bears no cost for this benefit. ESOP enables employees to accumulate shares in the business without contributing any of their own money. Instead, the company makes contributions every year that are used to buy shares. Upon retirement or separation from the company, disbursements are made to the employee-owner to be used in retirement over and above their 401(k) assets.

Also, according to a recent Rutgers study, employee-owned companies tend to provide a more generous benefit packages to their employees such as health benefits, flex time, parental leave, tuition reimbursement and more that help with employee’s financial lives. In addition, the report stated that employee-owned companies provide more transparency to employees to help with their understanding of their company’s financial situation. NTH follows this trend as, in addition to our retirement plans, we offer a very generous benefit package, a Wellness program and a Volunteer Time Off program.
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Another unique ESOP benefit for employee-owners is that it gives each employee-owner a stake in the success of our company. Everyone is working to build his or her, and everyone else’s, successful future. When the company succeeds, we all succeed! This helps to improve morale and lends itself to a more engaged team with supportive co-workers.
 
Shared ownership makes people part of something bigger than themselves. Being able to benefit directly from the overall success and profitability of the company adds significant motivation to work harder, think creatively, and work efficiently as a team. 

On May 7, NTH Consultants was honored with a ​National Recognition Award at the ACEC National Engineering Excellence Awards for our project "Telegraph-Franklin Sewer Replacement: Using Modified HDD Techniques to Mitigate Sinkhole Risks." For this project, NTH was retained to lead a design-build emergency rehabilitation following a water main break which created large sinkhole. NTH and the lead contractor, DVM Utilities, used Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) technology to restore the sewer and stabilize the sinkhole area without impacting existing utilities, structures, and the highway. NTH was pleased to be joined at the awards ceremony by our clients, Sid Lockhart and Joel Brown from the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner's Office.

The design team consisting of WSP Michigan Inc., HNTB Michigan, Inc., Mannik & Smith Group, Inc. and NTH was also honored for the American Center for Mobility Project (ACM) in Ann Arbor. The project included utilizing re-purposed MDOT right-of-way along US-12 to complete the approximately 3-mile highway loop, development of a boulevard and urban corridor, a 700’ roadway tunnel, and deployment of connected technologies. 

On May 11, NTH accepted the ASCE Southeast Michigan Branch's Project of the Year award for the Auburn Wastewater Treatment Plant - 66-Inch Diameter River Crossing Influent Pipeline Rehabilitation project. We accepted along with the contractor,  ​Kevin Clarey, Weiss Construction Co., LLC and client George Nichols of the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner's Office.

ASCE SEMI Branch also bestowed the 2019 Young Civil Engineer of the Year Award to NTH's own Ashley Lesser. She was singled out for her work with the Southeastern Michigan ASCE Branch's Committee on Younger Members, the Engineering Society of Detroit {ESD), Society of Women Engineers {SWE), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and for her overall commitment to her profession and the field of Civil Engineering. We thrilled to have Ashley represent NTH and are proud to boast that she is part of our team. 

Finally, NTH President and CEO, Kevin Hoppe, P.E. was honored with a Life Member Award!

While Karyn has been involved for many years, her status as an NTH ESOP Champion has really solidified over the last four to five years. ​Several years ago, Karyn grabbed the reins of the Ownership Communications Committee and has driven the programs, activities and culture ever since. Karyn has taken the OCC committee from one that occasionally hosted events to one that plans a full year-long schedule, packed with educational activities and information, healthy eating and exercise information, fun games, on and off site activities and more to engage our employee owners.

We are very proud to boast about Karyn's achievement and very pleased that she work at NTH!      

Michigan is about to experience rapid growth opportunities within the solar energy market. Consumers Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan settlement agreement has been filed with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC).  MPSC staff and stakeholders, from non-profits to developers within the renewable sector, worked to develop the settlement which was broken down into five categories, and has brought Michigan to a tipping point in renewable development.  The main takeaways from the settlement include:

• Cost recoveries involving Energy Waste Reduction, Demand Response, and Conservation Voltage Reduction
• The ability to recover book balances of D.E. Karn Units 1 & 2
• Proposed competitive-bid methodology for determining avoided costs rates and for determining and addressing Consumers capacity position pursuant to PURPA
• Utilization of a five-year period for the purpose of determining Consumers capacity position and related obligations pursuant to PURPA, and find that Consumers has no PURPA capacity need
• Approval of Consumers Financial Compensation Mechanism for any new Power Purchase Agreements

Should the Michigan Public Service Commission accept the settlement agreement without change, Consumers is committed to delivering its first RFP (Request for Proposal) this summer, awarding the first projects no later than September 2019. With NTH’s strong history executing projects across Michigan for more than 50 years, we are poised to team with clients to deliver Michigan a brighter, cleaner future.

NTH has the experience to assist our clients in the energy market on a variety of ecological and environmental and engineering projects. Our team of professionals specializes in providing sustainable solutions to complex problems and we are proud of our long history, diverse engineering skills, record-of-success, and award-winning recognition by our peers for successful engineering, environmental compliance, and renewable energy projects. We believe these attributes, combined with our strong project management system and long-term experience working with federal, state, and local entities, make us uniquely qualified to provide environmental engineering services on almost any project. 

Contact us to see how we can help meet your energy project needs. Feel free to reach out:

Robert K. Bates, Senior Project Scientist
rbates@nthconsultants.com
248-662-2038  (office) / 949-374-2373 (mobile)

​To learn more about us, visit us here: nthconsultants.com/energy-market

​This event has been popular with participants year after year, and this year was no different.  This event gives the participants the opportunity to get their hands dirty and have fun, all while learning a little about what engineers can do to help protect the environment and those who live around it!

​The ACM is a non-profit testing, education and product development facility for future mobility, designed to enable safe validation and self-certification of connected and automated vehicle technology, and to accelerate the development of voluntary standards. The project included utilizing re-purposed MDOT right-of-way along US-12 to complete the approximately 3-mile highway loop, development of a boulevard and urban corridor, a 700’ roadway tunnel, and deployment of connected technologies. NTH staff, led by Brad Venman and Bhushan Modi, assisted with property redevelopment, planning, and design details, and helped to ensure compliance with the Declaration of Restrictive Covenants (DRCs) requirements and ongoing affirmative obligations (due care activities) for management of environmental risks.

The Owner selected DVM Utilities, Inc. (DVM) as the contractor to replace the collapsed sewer. Their experience and expertise in HDD and innovative construction methods allowed the team to utilize a low-cost construction method within extremely tight constraints and tolerances. 

We Are Hiring
In addition to these award-winning projects, NTH has been involved with some of the most prominent and interesting projects in our region, including the Gordie Howe International Bridge, West Riverfront Park and Little Caesar’s Arena. If you are interested in joining our team to work on these and other exciting projects, visit bit.ly/NTHandYou to learn more about us and search for your next career.