#Power outage consumers energy how to#

The utility said in a statement: 'Customers should note that it may take one to two billing cycles for the credit to appear on their bill.'ĭTE said it could not commit to issuing the $35 credit 'automatically' in future storms without submitting such a plan to state officials at the Michigan Public Service Commission, which sets rates that utilities can charge.

DTE said it would do so for this batch of outages, 'automatically,' and that customers would not have to apply for the credit. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel weighed in Monday by saying that, despite the utilities' frequent requests for higher rates, and their promises to improve their outage records, they have 'failed to adequately invest in their own infrastructure or prepare for these storm events, choosing instead to leave ratepayers in the dark.' Nessel also called on DTE and Consumers Energy to start routinely issuing $35 credits when customers lose power for extended periods, generally for 96 consecutive hours.

This winter's rare onslaught of high winds and ice storms, usually a spring phenomenon, has created a huge maintenance crisis but also a public relations headache for Michigan's two giant electric utilities, drawing online barbs from countless Michiganders as well as also sharp questions from political leaders about the state's seeming failures in power reliability and the rising cost of energy here. There was a fresh one-tenth to two-tenths of ice on trees in central Oakland County and a report of ice coating trees in Warren as well, as of Monday night, said Steve Freitag, staff meteorologist at the National Weather Service in White Lake. More bad weather at dusk on Monday was further slowing repair efforts in metro Detroit, as rain changed to sleet and began coating tree branches in some areas, the National Weather Service reported. (Each customer represents an electric meter, so some customers comprised families or work sites affecting many people.) As of the same time, Consumers Energy said it had restored more than 200,000 customers who'd lost power last week but the utility still had about 73,000 customers without electricity. Monday night, the outage total was back up to nearly 50,000 customers, although the utility said it was making good progress on restoring power.

By early evening Monday, Michigan's two biggest utilities - DTE and Consumers - had restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers who lost it last week, yet they were playing catch-up as fresh winds and storms brought new outages.Īt daybreak Monday, DTE had just 30,000 customers to restore of the 600,000 who were in the dark after last Wednesday's ice storm. More bad weather has slowed and even set back efforts to restore power to Michiganders in the dark. If you're experiencing an outage and it's not listed on DTE's site, you can report it by clicking ‘report outage’.Watch Video: Tips for dealing with power outages On the outage map, you can search by address to see if there's an outage in your neighborhood.

#Power outage consumers energy how to#

More: How to apply for reimbursement from DTE, Consumers Energy Purple indicates 99 or fewer customers without power, green is 100-500, yellow is 501-1,500, orange is 1,501 to 2,500, and red is 2,501 or more. On the company's page, it will enclose businesses and residents in different shades. Find the DTE Energy map here.ĭTE services much of Southeast Michigan and tracks outages based throughout the area. How to check DTE's outage mapĭTE is tracking the outages with its outage map that updates as power outages are reported. The bulk of those were concentrated in south-central Michigan. MORE: What do you do if a traffic light is out during a power outageĬonsumers Energy, which runs electrical utility services for residents outside of Southeast Michigan, reported 194,000 customers affected by the storm. Wednesday night that technical issues were preventing customers from accessing their account and reporting downed wires and outages.

'I assure you and all our customers that we'll work around the clock as quickly and safely as possible so each customer has power restored.' 'We know how frustrating and impactful it can be without power,' he said. That includes branches which came crashing onto wires, as well as the wires themselves. Falling branches, heavy ice disrupting power in Southeast MichiganĭTE said ice wreaked havoc on its power grid Wednesday night when ice that froze to surfaces weighed them down, snapping wires and trees.