The North American Energy Markets Association is posting this RFP on behalf of our members Polar Consulting and Upper Peninsula Power Company (UPPCo).
Customer Overview
A regulated utility, Upper Peninsula Power Company (“UPPCo”) serves approximately 52,000 electric retail customers in 10 of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s 15 counties, or about 12 customers per square mile. UPPCo’s service territory of 4,460 square miles covers primarily rural countryside. The company’s assets include seven hydroelectric renewable energy generation facilities and one combustion turbine providing a total generation capacity of approximately 60 megawatts. UPPCo owns approximately 4,354 distribution line miles which traverse some of the most heavily wooded areas in Michigan. UPPCo also operates 58 distribution substations.
Polar Overview
Polar Consulting (“Polar”) provides a broad spectrum of energy procurement and transactional services to utilities, wholesale market participants, and large commercial and industrial customers. Polar designs and administers competitive RFPs and auction-enabled energy procurement events on behalf of its customers within its Polaris RFx Platform. Polar’s role in facilitating transactions is that of a match-making entity, as Polar never takes title to any of the commodities or attributes for which its customers are transacting.
RFP Overview
UPPCo is seeking to procure 30 Zonal Resource Credits (“ZRCs”) for both Winter 2029-30 (December 1, 2029 – February 28, 2030) and Winter 2030-31 (December 1, 2030 – February 28, 2031) within Local Resource Zone (“LRZ”) 2 or across LRZs 1-7. UPPCo will collect offers from qualified bidders for products as outlined within its RFP via a structured auction event conducted on the Polaris RFx Platform open from 3:30 PM ET on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 until 3:00 PM ET on Friday, March 13, 2026.
The RFP document is below:
Polar RFP Details for UPPCo Q1 2026 MISO Winter Capacity Procurement