Michigan AG weighs in on DTE's power outage issues
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – For some DTE customers, losing power after the ice storm and then again over the weekend has been a double whammy.
Attorney General Dana Nessel said Monday the way DTE has handled the outages is unacceptable.
"If I had to give them a grade. I guess I give them an F. I think they're failing," Nessel told CBS News Detroit.
Nessel is the latest voice joining a chorus of elected leaders fed up with DTE's response to the power outages that left hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark.
"To call this an inconvenience to people is really the understatement of the century, right?" Nessel said. "When when you don't have power, you can't go about your daily life in any way, shape, or form."
Nessel has been recommending to the Michigan Public Service Commission over the last four years to do more to ensure DTE puts its customers above its shareholders.
"DTE continues to spend millions and millions in political giving donations to legislators and other government officials, and advertising and things that it's hard for me to reconcile," Nessel said.
Her office pushes back whenever the utility asks for a rate increase.
"These are monopolies. And so, how else are we going to get them to perform better if there aren't penalties that are associated with their poor performance," Nessel said.
Nessel wants to increase the credits customers are eligible for when they lose power and make them automatic credits.
"$35 is simply not going to cut it," Nessel said.
She also believes some disaster relief measures should be in place to address future outages, like creating a subsidy program for generators.
Our interview comes days after reports regarding discrepancies over the number of outages on DTE's dashboard versus the outage map.
A DTE spokesperson provided this statement to CBS News Detroit:
"DTE does not underreport outages. Our Outage Center uses individual meter data, which is the most accurate representation of customer outages to report total number of power outages. We recently launched a new outage map that utilizes an algorithm to predict outages by location. We are aware that this map is currently significantly overestimating total outage count and we're working to calibrate it. We apologize for any confusion this may be causing our customers."
Nessel points out that's just another reason why DTE should do better.
"You have a number of legislators that are prepared to act. And, you know, who I think are probably willing to risk their own political future, in an effort to make sure that we finally, at long last, have some accountability here," Nessel said.
Several legislators are planning to hold DTE to task at future hearings in Lansing and drafting proposed legislation that would have utility companies pay customers by the hour whenever there's an outage.