Power Outage Map

[km1125]

DTE is NOT responsible for anyone else's "substantial costs" when the power goes out. Pushing for such changes will just result in even HIGHER electrical bills FOREVER even when NO outages happen. I'm sure DTE would LOVE to have such requirements because they could IMMEDIATELY justify (and sue for, if necessary) a H*** rate increase, as it would increase their revenues immediately.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the world's biggest corporate patsy.

For the rest of us consumers NOT impressed by this legal monopoly's service performance;
https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/consumer/complaints

You can make all the complaints you want, but just "watch out for what you wish for"!! You force them to guarantee power and you're have significantly increased bills, that you'll pay every single month from now until the end of time. And you'll pay that for every single kilowatt you use, regardless if it's for a "critical" function or not.

DTE is a regulated utility that requires Lansing's approval for any and all proposed rate increases. I am unaware of any prior instance where they've been able to successfully sue in court to force a rate increase.

They've never need to yet (I don't think) but it's certainly within their purview if they're not making headway on a rate increase to compensate for a regulatory-required change to their operation.

Their ability to pay dividends to shareholders should be tied to service reliability benchmarks.

Now, I might be able to get behind that kind of movement, but think a quicker and more effective move would be on the annual bonus penalties. Although, they are similar concepts.

The $35 one time credit to those who've faced 4, 5, 6 or even 7 day outages is a joke. The credit should be formulaically calculated and increased as outage time increases (especially if outage time is abnormally high compared to surrounding areas).

The MOST that anyone should get is a credit for the monthly service charge, which could be pro-rated based on the days they were out.

[MWmetalhead]

If extended outages are due to negligence on DTE's part with regard to equipment maintenance, the recompense should be greater than what you suggest. Otherwise, what you proposed is reasonable.

Despite the rhetoric spewed by DTE's people, this was not the worst ice storm in 50 years. In some areas with high outage numbers, ice accretion was only 0.25 of an inch, which barely meets the NWS definition of an ice storm. Other areas had closer to a half inch. It's possible more people suffered outages in this ice storm than any other over that period, of course, but that wouldn't be solely due to weather conditions.

I would love to see proof of the supposed 1400+ crews that DTE had out in the field. I cannot help but be skeptical of that claim.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

I have to agree with kml in that DTE would use any extra pay out to justify boosting rates. Honestly, the only way to exact a change in policy is to reform the MPSC. The MPSC does give DTE 90% of what they request when they request a rate increase. The MPSC has essentially approved everything Consumers, Semco, and DTE have proposed minus 10% to make it seem like they are being impartial.

[dial-it-in]

.......... glad to see they will have to go to Lansing to explain why it took them so long to restore power in Metro Detroit. I wonder if DTE will be sued for not getting power back on promptly.

Consider this a short outage. If electric cars become mandatory and I don't see how they can imagine 300 million cars on recharge and it shuts down the grid. The deadline however has been set in California for the switchover to electric cars but then they're telling everyone to not recharge right now. The fact is they (California) don't have the power generation requirements for their current needs let alone the added load of recharging cars. Something to think about in the bigger picture.

Thats actually a pretty solid point. And some folks want to mandate electric vehicles?
I'm not against electric cars; we just cant put the cart ahead of the horse.

[MWmetalhead]

I would love to see a paper trail validating the claim 1400+ crews were in the field working on restoration.

[km1125]

I would love to see a paper trail validating the claim 1400+ crews were in the field working on restoration.

Curious why you doubt that number.

I've worked in a similar sized operation and we could have easily scrambled 1400 linemen to respond to a large issue like this. And that's without borrowing from other divisions or other companies (except for contractors who normally compliment the field crews).

Of course, it all depends on what you're calling a "crew". Is that in individual linemen or the working group of linemen that might be required to take care of an individual issue. Some issues could be handled by an individual (tripped breakers) but other issues require 6 or more to resolve the problem safely.

[ChrisWL1980]

MLive has an article about the mass confusion the new maps caused among Ann Arbor residents.
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/20 ... -says.html

[Marcus]

I found the Ontario version. Last night part of Sarnia lost power for less than an hour. The last two storms didn't do that here.

https://www.hydroone.com/power-outages- ... outage-map

[Mega Hertz]

It was worse than I thought this morning. Nobody had power around here at all. That's why I wound up in the Green Oak/Hamburg area. Lee Road at Rickett had nothing. Stoplight was out, gas stations, McDonald's, everything. We are fortunate we didn't get it like my friends did down 23 in Ann Arbor. One guy told me their power didn't come back on until Wednesday!

[Matt]

I would love to see a paper trail validating the claim 1400+ crews were in the field working on restoration.

One of my coworkers who lives in the northwest side of Ann Arbor had an issue where there was a downed line on her property. She said DTE asked her husband if the line was live or not and how much new line they'd need.

[km1125]

Here's a small area is Westland, but not really any different that other areas that had outages.

If you were in the middle of this, in the overlapping zones, which outage were you really part of?

[SD45]

My parents moved to Hillsborough County, Florida in 2018 and they get power restored faster after a hurricane than DTE does.

They lost power for 18 hours after Hurricane Ian in September.

My uncle in Troy, Michigan lost power for 5 days in August 2022 after a summer thunderstorm.

[Ohio_Quebecois]

I left Detroit in 2006, and have lived in Columbus and Canton, Ohio. In that time, we have had power outages totaling maybe 36 hours. Most of those were after an ice storm when we lost power for a full day. I genuinely can’t remember the last time our power was out for more than an hour. I detest living in Ohio, but the power company keeps things going.

[MWmetalhead]

In my childhood home in the GR area, there were above ground powerlines everywhere. During the Memorial Day weekend derecho of 1998, never lost power. I can remember other severe storms with limbs down, hail, etc. - very seldom lost power other than a "flicker."

I can remember only one instance where a power outage lasted more than two days. That occurred in the very early 90s.

Consumers back then did an excellent job maintaining service (today - not so much).

[km1125]

There's a lot of structural differences in power distribution now vs, say, 40 or 50 years ago. Back then you had smaller power lines and less of them at the top of the poles and much larger and heavier telephone lines below them. You only needed a pole 4-6 feet higher then the minimum telephone line height. The telephone lines, because they were big and heavy, also needed a large wire rope (strand) to hold them up which also supports the poles.

Now you have many other services on the poles. You have cable TV (and you might have more than one of those!) and you have fiber optic lines. Many of the large heavy copper telephone lines have been replaced with much smaller and lighter fiber optic lines which no longer require the heavy support strand. And now you might have multiple power lines to handle the capacity, or have much larger lines closer to the top of the pole. The poles also have to be higher to accommodate the separation in all those services.

This mean the poles and all the lines on them can catch more wind, can hold more ice or wet snow (with all that weight and also adds to the wind loads) and may not have the heavy strands that could hold up under duress like the old large strands could.