MICHIGAN, USA — Michigan is one of the top states in the country for outages and now the state is conducting an audit looking at our two biggest utility companies, Consumers Energy and DTE.
Michigan is sixth in the nation for annual outage minutes per customer and third worst for time to restore power after an outage as of 2019, according to Commissioner Katherine Peretick with the Michigan Public Service Commission.
From 2000 to 2021 Michigan was also in third for the highest number of total outages. These numbers aren't normalized for population, putting Michigan up with California and Texas, despite having a smaller population.
After several injuries and a death from downed lines on the east side of the state in August, the commission felt they had to do something different.
"After these most recent storms, and particularly after the deaths of the children contacting the downed wires, we want to do something and it felt like just opening another investigation, or issuing more reports, or hosting another technical conference, just wasn't going to be sufficient," said Peretick.
"We can't do the same thing over again, and then expect the results to be different," she explained.
When asked about the audit, Consumers Energy sent 13 On Your Side the following statement:
"Safety is our top priority at Consumers Energy, not just for our coworkers but for everyone in our state. We appreciate the MPSC's interest in ensuring that energy providers are taking steps to protect and inform people before, during and after severe storms, and improve electric system reliability and resilience. We look forward to working with the MPSC and focusing on the well-being of the people we serve."
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