Governor Whitmer Calls on Utilities for Action Following Last Week’s Storms; Consumers Energy Responds

(August 20, 2021 2:41 PM) Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer called on DTE Energy, Consumers Energy, and Indiana Michigan Power to provide financial compensation through credits to those who experienced extended power outages in last week’s round of storms.  The Governor also called on the utilities to commit resources to improve reliability through tree trimming and grid hardening. 

“This summer, Michiganders have been dealing with extreme weather events that led to lengthy power outages and repeated flooding,” said Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “More than 750,000 Michiganders lost power over the last few weeks, with some outages lasting up to a week on some of the hottest days of the year. Outages like these lead to fridges full of spoiled food, interfere with life-saving medical equipment, disrupt the workday, and exacerbate the dangers of unmitigated hot weather. 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.” 

Governor Whitmer is calling on utilities to automatically credit customers who experienced outages and increase the amount paid out. She is also asking for immediate action to reduce disruptions to power by increasing tree trimming and other grid-hardening practices. 

In response to the Governor’s letter, Consumers Energy said the utility is already spending significantly on infrastructure improvements and reliability.  Katie Carey,  Director of External Relations for Consumers Energy said, “As an energy provider, we know keeping the lights on is job one for Consumers Energy. Dealing with power outages can be frustrating for our customers, and we’re proud of our team’s amazing work last week to restore power swiftly and safely and care for our customers who were impacted by the extreme weather Michigan endured. To work to prevent outages, we’ve already more than doubled our investment in grid hardening reliability and increased our forestry investment by more than 60 percent since 2018. Looking forward, we plan to continue to significantly increase our investments in grid reliability. 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. 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.”

The Governor also encouraged the Michigan Public Service Commission to prevent utilities from recovering outage-related costs from customers; require utilities to develop more extensive emergency preparedness plans; and speed up the adoption of rules that will increase grid security and reliability. 

Carey pointed out Consumers Energy is in the second year of its five-year plan with a goal of improvement in reliability performance by focusing primarily on infrastructure upgrades, Forestry management and grid modernization. The plan includes a significant increase in spending of more than $500 million over the five years to keep distribution lines clear. 

The Governor’s letters can be read here:

Utility Outage Letter to CEOs.pdf 

Utility Letter_Outages_MPSC.pdf

The Consumers Energy Five Year Plan summary can be downloaded here.