Power Outages in Michigan: Recovery and Outage Credit Updates
Following severe weather in Mid- and Southeast Michigan last week, a significant number of people are still without power. At the peak of the outages on Friday, DTE Energy reported that over 200,000 of its customers were without electricity. Similarly, Consumers Energy also had approximately 200,000 customers without power. This resulted in a total of more than 400,000 outages statewide.
As of Sunday, around 50,000 DTE customers in Southeast Michigan were still experiencing power outages. This followed reports of seven tornadoes hitting the state on Thursday night. By Monday morning, the number of outages had decreased to just over 19,000, with specific attention given to addressing larger clusters of outages in Monroe County.
Most heavily affected by outages
According to the DTE outage map, the areas most heavily affected by the storm-related outages included Ann Arbor, Livonia, Ypsilanti, Belleville, Farmington, Farmington Hills, and Redford.
Consumers Energy mobilized crews from Kentucky, Alabama, and Pennsylvania to assist in Michigan. They announced that over 1,000 line workers and support teams would work continuously to restore power.
By Sunday evening, Consumers Energy reported that approximately 52,000 customers were still without power. By the following Monday morning, this number had decreased to more than 33,000.
“Our crews worked tirelessly overnight to make significant progress restoring power and we appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to clean up the mess made by high winds and three confirmed tornadoes,” said Scott McIntosh, one of Consumers Energy’s Officers in Charge for the storm in a news release. “Restoring power is our No. 1 job and our lineworkers will continue putting in 16-hour shifts, around-the-clock until every last community is restored.”
DTE Energy recently introduced revised Service Quality and Reliability Standards, as directed by the Michigan Public Service Commission on March 24, 2023. These standards include a $35 credit for customers affected by prolonged power outages. An additional $35 per day of ongoing outage is provided once the initial qualification is met.
More information about these credits can be found here for DTE customers. Consumers Energy also offers a similar outage credit program, with further details available here.