Nessel urges DTE, Consumers to automatically credit customers impacted by outages
(CBS DETROIT) - Following last week's ice storm that left hundreds of thousands of Michiganders without power for days, Attorney General Dana Nessel is calling on DTE Energy and Consumers Energy to proactively issue credits to customers who lost power during the storm.
"While this ice storm appears to have been one of the worst we have seen in many years, winter weather is an expected occurrence in Michigan. Residents deserve a grid they can rely on," Nessel said. "Despite asking for record increases time and time again, our utilities have failed to adequately invest in their own infrastructure or prepare for these storm events, choosing instead to leave ratepayers in the dark. Our current service quality standards are not sufficient, and it is incumbent on the utilities to right this wrong."
As of Monday afternoon, DTE Energy reported 64,000 customers were still without power. Consumers Energy reported approximately 38,000 customers were without power.
The attorney general is asking the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) to reconsider and adopt her recommendations from prior electric outage and reliability investigation dockets.
Nessel says she's continuing to work with the legislature on enshrining protections into law, including the following:
- automatic credits for residents who lose power;
- more substantial outage credits to help customers who incurred expenses for housing, food, etc; and,
- the creation of metrics with penalties to ensure that the money spent on electric reliability results in increased reliability.
In March 2022, the MPSC determined that "[r]atepayers have a right to expect the utilities to anticipate extreme weather events, to provide a hardened grid that can withstand extreme weather, and to be prepared to restore power expediently when the grid fails."
