7/1/2023 0 Comments Power outage consumers energy![]() Utility executives also delivered Sunday on their promise to restore power to at least 95% of all their customers. "We look forward to getting the lights back on for every single customer." "We’re grateful to people in the communities we serve for their patience and understanding these last few days," Norm Kapala, a Consumers Energy executive said Sunday. They told people they cared and were doing what they could to fix the outages quickly. More: How long does food stay good in refrigerator without power? What to knowĭuring this current swath of outages, utility executives seemed to anticipate and tried to placate criticism by going out of their way, holding more news conferences and issuing public statements to quell concerns. More: Michigan power outage map: How to check your status On Monday, a DTE spokesman said that the utility had invested more than $1 billion in the last year to "harden our grid" against storm damage, and that "we've applied for additional funds to do more." Last year, DTE and Consumers Energy submitted data to state officials showing that they were trimming many more trees than in years past, and that they were installing more technology on their outdoor wiring, aiming to reduce the frequency and duration of storm-related outages. Consumers Energy said that the $25 credit would appear on customer bills only if the customer applies applications are found on the utility's website. ![]() Consumers Energy has thus far not offered to pay more than the usual state-set $25 per customer for outages. The utility said in a statement: "Customers should note that it may take one to two billing cycles for the credit to appear on their bill."ĭTE said it could not commit to issuing the $35 credit "automatically" in future storms without submitting such a plan to state officials at the Michigan Public Service Commission, which sets rates that utilities can charge. DTE said it would do so for this batch of outages, "automatically," and that customers would not have to apply for the credit. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel weighed in Monday by saying that, despite the utilities' frequent requests for higher rates, and their promises to improve their outage records, they have "failed to adequately invest in their own infrastructure or prepare for these storm events, choosing instead to leave ratepayers in the dark." Nessel also called on DTE and Consumers Energy to start routinely issuing $35 credits when customers lose power for extended periods, generally for 96 consecutive hours. This winter's rare onslaught of high winds and ice storms, usually a spring phenomenon, has created a huge maintenance crisis but also a public relations headache for Michigan's two giant electric utilities, drawing online barbs from countless Michiganders as well as also sharp questions from political leaders about the state's seeming failures in power reliability and the rising cost of energy here. There was a fresh one-tenth to two-tenths of ice on trees in central Oakland County and a report of ice coating trees in Warren as well, as of Monday night, said Steve Freitag, staff meteorologist at the National Weather Service in White Lake. More bad weather at dusk on Monday was further slowing repair efforts in metro Detroit, as rain changed to sleet and began coating tree branches in some areas, the National Weather Service reported. ![]() (Each customer represents an electric meter, so some customers comprised families or work sites affecting many people.) As of the same time, Consumers Energy said it had restored more than 200,000 customers who'd lost power last week but the utility still had about 73,000 customers without electricity. ![]() Monday night, the outage total was back up to nearly 50,000 customers, although the utility said it was making good progress on restoring power. By early evening Monday, Michigan's two biggest utilities - DTE and Consumers - had restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers who lost it last week, yet they were playing catch-up as fresh winds and storms brought new outages.Īt daybreak Monday, DTE had just 30,000 customers to restore of the 600,000 who were in the dark after last Wednesday's ice storm. More bad weather has slowed and even set back efforts to restore power to Michiganders in the dark. Watch Video: Tips for dealing with power outages ![]()
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