More bad weather for Michigan sets back repairs, adds more outages

More bad weather has slowed and even set back efforts to restore power to Michiganders in the dark. 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.

At 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. But by 8:30 p.m. 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. (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. 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.

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. 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.

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. DTE said it would do so for this batch of outages, "automatically," and that customers would not have to apply for the credit. 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."

DTE 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. Consumers Energy has thus far not offered to pay more than the usual state-set $25 per customer for outages. Consumers Energy said that the $25 credit would appear on customer bills only if the customer applies; applications are found on the utility's website.

Last year, DTE and Consumers Energy submitted data to state officials showing that they were trimming many more trees than in years past, and that they were installing more technology on their outdoor wiring, aiming to reduce the frequency and duration of storm-related outages. On Monday, a DTE spokesman said that the utility had invested more than $1 billion in the last year to "harden our grid" against storm damage, and that "we've applied for additional funds to do more."

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During this current swath of outages, utility executives seemed to anticipate and tried to placate criticism by going out of their way, holding more news conferences and issuing public statements to quell concerns. They told people they cared and were doing what they could to fix the outages quickly.

"We’re grateful to people in the communities we serve for their patience and understanding these last few days," Norm Kapala, a Consumers Energy executive said Sunday. "We look forward to getting the lights back on for every single customer."

Utility executives also delivered Sunday on their promise to restore power to at least 95% of all their customers. But they were set back with new outages by subsequent bad weather, they said Monday.

Reliability in question

Adding to the concerns of the public, and politicians and policymakers, was that society seems headed for an all-electric future, spurred by the advent of electric vehicles and the worldwide turn away from fossil fuels. Those shifts raise worrisome questions: How do automakers make the case for electric vehicles if, with prolonged power outages, customers are stranded by EVs parked beside non-working chargers? How do "smart homes" continue to function when appliances and devices powered by electricity, and interconnected by the internet, become inert? And do mass outages point to greater vulnerabilities for everyone to terrorism threatening our security?

While last week's storm ravaged much of the Midwest, Michigan bore the brunt of power blackouts. DTE Energy President and CEO Jerry Norcia said that's because Michigan got hit with more ice than did other states.

"Over the last several years, across the country, we've seen more and more weather patterns that are much more violent, and are really causing major disruptions and major damage on grids all across this country," he said on Friday. "We are not alone in this, but we are acting, we are moving."

Since Wednesday, nearly 5,800 workers, many from other states, toiled through each night in long shifts. Crews endured the cold, rain, wind, sleet and snow, eased over the weekend by warm afternoons, but challenged again Monday by rain, heavy at times. They also faced life-threatening situations: unstable piles of downed trees, limbs and poles; and broken power lines, hissing and sparking with danger.

They also dealt with, executives said, frustrated customers who've had no lights and heat for days, some of whom called in false reports of downed wires in hopes of getting faster repairs. Crews were exposed to profanity and even encountered vicious, biting dogs, utility executives said.

Small compensation

Now, in addition to the expense of repairs, the utilities will have to pay out customer credits of as much as $35 for loss of power. According to casinobonusca.com — a website that reviews a variety of data, particularly for the Canadian gambling market — the odds of a power outage are relatively high and Michigan is among the top five states most likely to experience a blackout in the past decade. Only Maine, New Hampshire, and Hawaii were worse. Among the top five, Michigan was followed by West Virginia.

"The rise of extreme weather conditions due to climate change as well as run-down power grids are the leading causes for power outages all over the United States," the analysis concluded. "Depending on the situation, losing power can become very dangerous. Especially the elderly and children are affected if the heating or cooling fails for too long."

In Michigan, utility customers who experience lengthy or frequent service outages are eligible for a $25 credit on their electric bill, according to rules of the Michigan Public Service Commission. In addition, DTE has offered $35 credits to those whose power is out for more than 96 hours in the current crisis.

DTE and Consumers Energy offer electronic forms for credit that can be submitted online.

Eligibility conditions: Customers qualify for the usual $25 credit on their utility bills only if they apply; applications are found on the utility websites. Qualifying conditions include outages of more than 120 hours under "catastrophic conditions," defined as an event that results in an official state of emergency; or an event that results in an interruption of 10% or more of the utility’s customers; or an outage of more than 16 hours under non-catastrophic conditions; or eight or more outages in 12 months.

As their power returned, some Michiganders took to their newly restored access to social media to share their glee, posting photos of their overhead lights — back on at last. But tens of thousands of others, as of a chilly and wet Monday night, were still waiting.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com. Staff writer Bill Laytner contributed.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan faces more bad weather as power outage repairs continue