Many Michiganders feel powerless over their own electrical power. That’s because, despite approved rate hikes, when a storm hits the power can be out for days before utility companies like Consumers Energy and DTE Energy are able to restore it. 

But while many are disappointed with the performance of Michigan’s utility companies, some regulators point to progress as outage time has decreased by about 23% since 2019. 

How are Michigan’s utility companies held accountable for their actions? And, what kinds of improvements are taking root?

Dan Scripps is the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates DTE Energy. He says the utility’s performance has been improving. 

“Last year… DTE for the first time in at least 25 years… was actually in the top quarter of utilities when you consider performance across the whole year.” 

Scripps joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss what is being done to restore and upgrade the state’s aging grid. 

DTE is a financial supporter of WDET. Our newsroom observes a clear boundary between funders and editorial content, and we do not serve the agendas of those who support us. 

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts.

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There is a quiet that settles into a house when the power has been out for three days. The hum you never noticed is gone. The refrigerator has given up. If someone in the house depends on a machine to sleep, or a medication that has to stay cold, the quiet starts to feel like something else.

That was the mood in many homes in southeast Michigan over the Fourth of July weekend. Storms came through on Friday night with winds over 60 miles an hour.

By that night, more than 450,000 utility customers statewide were in the dark — most of them DTE customers. For some, the power did not come back for five days.

As the lights returned, so too did an argument about what people are owed when the grid fails, and about who, exactly, is supposed to answer for it.

Representative Alabas Farhat is among the people pushing for answers to those questions. He represents Dearborn and part of Detroit — some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods — and he is calling for state hearings into how the utilities responded, along with bigger compensation for residents than the state’s $42-a-day outage credit.

DTE has defended its response. In a statement to WDET, the company said the storms caused the most damage it has seen in years — knocking out power to nearly 400,000 of its customers — and that its “sole focus is on restoring power for our customers as quickly and safely as possible.”

At a press conference this week, CEO Joi Harris said the company got only about 90 minutes’ warning before the storm hit, and officials said most of the damage came from large trees outside the utility’s easements, with replacement crews coming from as far as Texas and Canada.

Harris also acknowledged the limits of the credit: “We know that $42 doesn’t cut it.”

Farhat joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss what he heard from constituents who spent days in the dark, why he believes the current credit falls short, and what it would take to hold Michigan’s utilities to a higher standard.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.

If you live in metro Detroit, the last week probably tested your patience — and maybe your fridge.

First, the heat. As temperatures rose past 100, the grid strained, and a substation in Warren failed. Thousands lost power, some for many hours.

Then, just as that passed, the storms came. Friday night, winds tore through the region and dropped 80-foot trees onto power lines — and at the peak, hundreds of thousands of homes went dark. Some homes stayed dark for days.

And here’s the thing: that’s the grid we already have, straining under an ordinary Michigan summer.

Now Michigan is preparing to add something extraordinary — data centers built to power artificial intelligence, each one hungry for as much electricity as a small city. And the decisions about who pays for that, and how, are being made right now, mostly out of public view.

Nicholas Schroeck, dean of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, thinks a lot about who answers to the public when big energy decisions get made. He joined Robyn Vincent to talk about what the data center boom means for Michigan’s grid, your electric bill, and whether the public has any real say.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand. Never miss an episode — subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have thoughts? Email the show at metro@wdet.org.

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