“It’s not clear to me that a homeowner can do very much to prevent power from going out,” said Parth Vaishnav, an assistant professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. Snow, freezing rain and wind are expected Friday night into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service. Utility customers in the Detroit area may have more to be concerned with as more cold, wet and icy weather is expected this weekend. "We’re going to continue to look for ways to make the system more resilient, be able to handle any damage that’s coming from those trees.” “The ice sure puts quite a burden on all these trees that are around our area and around our lines," he said. Hospitals, fire stations, nursing homes and other critical services receive high priority in restorations, said Ryan Stowe, a DTE Energy vice president.įrom there, crews move on to large pockets of outages before beginning service restoration “where we focus a lot of resources on going out and kind of triaging individual homes,” said Stowe, who called the ice storm the largest in the company's history. DTE Energy has about 2.3 million electricity customers in southeastern Michigan. Sean McCann, a Democrat from Kalamazoo and chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, said Tuesday that he wants an investigation.Ĭonsumers Energy supplies electricity to 1.8 million homes and businesses, largely outside of metropolitan Detroit. Gretchen Whitmer called for accountability, saying "we can move faster as these climate events happen more and more often.”
Nearly all of the remaining homes and business without service should have it back later in the day, the utility said.Ĭonsumers Energy is carrying out a five-year, $5.4 billion plan to build a stronger, smarter power grid that reduces the number and length of outages.
Jackson, Michigan-based Consumers Energy said Wednesday morning that it had restored power to more than 90% of its 403,000 customers who lost it following both storms.
An additional 46,000 were out Tuesday following a second ice storm on Monday. More than 600,000 homes and businesses serviced by the utility lost power during last Wednesday’s ice storm. not knowing exactly what is going to happen day to day,” she told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.ĭetroit-based DTE Energy reported Wednesday morning that about 15,890 of its customers still were without service. And like thousands of Michigan residents left in the dark following back-to-back ice storms, Thomas wonders when the lights will come on - and stay on. It was back on four days later, on Sunday evening, but was lost again the next day. The power in Leah Thomas' Beverly Hills, Michigan, home went out about 9 p.m. Making these improvements will help us deliver more reliable energy that is clean and affordable to our electric customers,” says Tim Sparks, vice president of electric grid integration of Consumers Energy.įor more information about Consumers Energy, go to. “The HVD system is the backbone of our power grid. Consumers Energy is Michigan’s largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. Through the reliability plan, Consumers Energy plans to reduce the average length of time that customers are without power by nearly 15 percent from 2020 to 2025. Investments such as trimming trees, replacing poles and wires, and upgrading substations and key equipment are top priorities, especially with climate change causing more frequent and severe weather events. The company says the plan is a blueprint for serving Michigan today and innovating to meet the challenges of the future.
This year’s HVD upgrades are part of the company’s larger efforts to build a more reliable and resilient energy grid through its five-year, $5.4 billion Electric Reliability Plan. Consumers Energy’s network of distribution substations and smaller transformers then step the voltage down progressively for safe delivery to homes and businesses. The HVD system carries electricity at either 46,000 volts or 138,000 volts. The HVD system connects the electric transmission system to Consumers Energy’s low voltage distribution (LVD) system.
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