DTE trimming trees, upgrading infrastructures
DTE Energy is preparing the electric grid for summer storm season and beyond with some major projects to ensure more reliable power for its 2.3 million customers, the utility company announced this week.
DTE is investing an additional $90 million in tree trimming to mitigate the major cause of power outages for customers — trimming more than 5,000 miles of trees since last summer alone.
The utility also performed reliability upgrades to more than 1,000 miles of infrastructure since last summer, including the replacement of 4,000 utility poles.
“Improvements not only increase reliability, but also help to create a resilient grid of the future,” DTE said.
Tree trimming greatly reduces power outages.
“We know that outages are reduced by 60-70% in areas where we’ve trimmed the trees back from our wires,” Matt Paul, DTE executive vice president of distribution operations, said. “Since last summer, we hired hundreds of additional tree trimmers, accelerated our timeframe for this work and trimmed 5,000 miles of trees.”
In communities where tree trimming has been completed, residents are experiencing greater reliability, said DTE.
“DTE engineers told us that the outages we were experiencing were due to trees throughout our city interfering with power lines, and we thought that can’t possibly be all of it,” Kevin McNamara, supervisor of Van Buren Township, said. “Amazingly enough, since DTE came through and completed tree trimming, our outages have dramatically decreased.”
In addition to tree trimming, the company has been constructing new substations and reconfiguring overhead and underground powerlines.
“These projects will improve overall reliability, particularly during severe weather, and support Michigan’s growing energy needs,” DTE said. “DTE is also integrating new technology to support increased efficiency. From a recently opened advanced Electric System Operations Center that enables the company to quickly identify and respond to customers’ issues in real time day or night, to enhanced technology that can reliably assess which customers are without power during storms and provide customers with more accurate information on their outage status, the company is integrating technologies that both address today’s challenges and will help build the grid of the future.”
To learn more about DTE Energy’s plan to improve electric reliability, visit dteenergy.com/reliability.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: DTE trimming trees, upgrading infrastructures
