The commission will have mot to say on the subject next week, he said. Matt Helms, spokesman for the Michigan Public Service Commission, said the panel is currently working to develop its next steps, consistent with the governor's recommendations. Whitmer appointed all three current members of the public service commission, which regulates utilities in the state. In a separate letter on Friday, Whitmer encouraged the Michigan Public Service Commission to prevent utilities from recovering outage-related costs from customers and to speed up the adoption of rules that will increase grid security and reliability. An abundance of trees, estimated to be 14 billion in Michigan, also are blamed for mass outages like the one that left more than 900,000 in the dark for days here after Aug. Outages are often caused by major weather events like storms and wildfires. Michigan ranks fourth highest nationwide for average annual power interruptions, according to the latest complete data from 2019 compiled by the Energy Information Administration. We are proud to partner with the governor and Michigan Public Service Commission on improving reliability, in an affordable way, when historic weather events hit our state." "We have a $5.4 billion electric reliability plan that is a blueprint for serving Michigan today and innovating to reduce the duration and number of power outages. "Looking forward, we plan to continue to significantly increase our investments in grid reliability," Carey said. Consumers is offering a $25 credit to eligible customers.Ĭonsumers Energy has already "more than doubled our investment in grid hardening reliability and increased our forestry investment by more than 60 percent since 2018," said the company's spokeswoman Katie Carey. DTE customers eligible for the $100 will receive both credits for a total of $125. The $100 credit was in addition to $25 DTE offered to customers with power outages for more than 120 consecutive hours. We understand how important reliable power is for our customers and we are committed to making continued improvements now and in the future."ĭTE is "proactively applying" a credit to the accounts of customers who experienced outages during last week's storm, the company said. "We’ll be back out in those communities most severely impacted, finalizing repairs, accelerated tree trimming and upgrading critical infrastructure.
"Our customers have endured hardships from power outages over the last six weeks," DTE Energy said in a Friday statement. The investments "should be financed in a manner that does not add to the customers' burden," the governor said.ĭTE Energy has said it will issue $100 credits to eligible customers whose power remained off Monday morning, six days after storms struck Michigan. Whitmer also said in her letter that the utilities should spend more money to improve power reliability through tree trimming and hardening the electric grid. The letter was addressed to Garrick Rochow, president and CEO of CMS Energy - its primary subsidiary is Consumers Energy - Jerry Norcia, president and CEO of DTE Energy, and Steve Baker, president and COO of Indiana Michigan Power.Īttorney General Dana Nessel made a similar request earlier this week to DTE and Consumers to automatically credit customers who endured long outages. "We need tangible, immediate action from Michigan’s three largest utility companies to ensure the production and delivery of affordable, reliable energy to every family, community, and small business."
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