LANSING, Mich. (WWJ) -- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is again calling on the state’s two largest utility companies to credit customers who continue to deal with power outages after severe weather.
As hundreds of thousands of DTE Energy and Consumers Energy customers have had to deal with power outages caused by severe weather this summer, Nessel is asking the utilities to voluntarily credit customers affected by the outages and to provide greater credits to assist customers who have lost hundreds of dollars or more in food and alternative housing costs.
As of Monday morning, there were more than 65,000 customers between the two utilities who were still without power following the latest round of storms, which saw more than half a million DTE customers lose power across metro Detroit.
Related
Currently, DTE offers a $25 credit to those who are eligible, while Consumers has a form for customers to fill out to request a credit, but Nessel says the credit should be automatic.
The AG is also calling on DTE and Consumers to create performance standards and a disaster program fund to help those who are displaced during significant power outages, like the one most of the state has dealt with over the last week.
“Summertime power outages are, unfortunately, nothing new for thousands across the state,” Nessel said in a press release Monday. Nessel raised these same concerns in a July 2019 letter to the former Chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) – in response to storms that year – and continued with comments filed with MPSC in August 2019, March 2020, and August 2020.
Consistent through the letter and comments is the argument that Michigan utilities should make the outage credit automatic, increase the outage credit, create performance standards, and create some disaster program to help customer displaced by storms and electric outages.
Despite her “repeated efforts to advocate for consumers,” Nessel’s office says Michigan utilities rank the bottom quartile of reliability, compared to other utilities across the U.S.
“The utility workers for Consumers Energy and DTE Energy are working hard to restore power, and I appreciate those who have worked tirelessly the last several days on behalf of the communities they serve, but these companies also need to work hard to restore trust with their customers,” Nessel said. “One way to restore confidence is to voluntarily adopt automatic outage credits and create a fund to assist customers displaced because of these increasingly frequent and powerful storms.”
Nessel says “we know that climate change is having a significant real impact, and a business-as-usual approach is no longer sufficient.”
“That is why it's imperative that our utility companies adapt to the changing climate and needs of their thousands of customers. Consumers Energy and DTE must do better than this,” she said.
Currently, to obtain an outage credit, a customer needs to file with their utility.
DTE Energy customers can submit here online.
Consumers Energy customers can submit here online.
Related
