(WWJ) Now that the OK has been given to turn our thermostats back up, Consumers Energy is looking to assess what went wrong at its northern Macomb County compression facility that caught fire Wednesday and led to calls for customers to lower their natural gas use as real-feel temperatures hovered between 30 and 40 degrees below zero.
"I would not attribute this to aging infrastructure because again, we've made significant upgrades and investments at that storage field because it is so important," said Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe about the utility's Ray Natural Gas Compressor Station on 32 Mile Road in Armada Township. Two-thirds of the area's energy supply flow through that station.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer has asked the Michigan Public Service Commission to conduct a review of Michigan’s energy supply and preparedness, in the wake of this week's incident.
She's also calling for a probe of Michigan's energy supply and its emergency preparedness. She wants new contingency plans ready by July 1.
On a media conference call, Poppe reiterated that the weather and infrastructure were not to blame for what felt to many like the precipice of a disaster. She said it was worst crisis in Consumers Energy history, per freep.com.
The issue was not supply -- as many assumed. The problem was having enough pipes to push the gas through.
"We were prepared for these (weather) extremes," Poppe said. "However, we could not overcome the failure of our equipment as a result of the fire at our largest storage and delivery facility."
At one point, the mayor of Warren, Michigan's third largest city, said he was warned the gas could be shut in his town off at 7 a.m. yesterday. He assumed the same was true for Macomb County, and possibly southeast Michigan.
Major consumers of energy, including General Motors, agreed to idle during the emergency to conserve gas for residential use.
What would have happened otherwise?
Tom Hardesty, manager of the Homeland Security Division for Oakland County, told freep.com he was told by Consumers during the crisis "there might be a concern that (the utility) couldn't meet demand."
The only information he was given, he said, was that the shortage could be east of Clarkston.
"That's a long ways north and south," Hardesty told the freep.