Michigan PSC reaches agreement with DTE for new program, improvements to storm response

DTE Electric will create a new, voluntary green pricing pilot for commercial and industrial customers, improve its emergency storm response and fund training and education surrounding downed wire safety, under an agreement approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) last week.

The approval concludes a commission review of DTE’s response to widespread weather-caused outages last spring and mandates the company to take a variety of actions. For starters, it must provide more first responders to meet expected response times, and work with the MPSC to improve its downed wire response processes. DTE must also begin tracking the cause of downed power lines and eliminate rear-lot power line hazards in Detroit. Further, it needs to provide $725,000 through 2020 toward a program with the National Energy Foundation to educate young students on electricity hazards and an additional $175,000 this year to the Michigan Fire Service Instructors Association to help them buy electric safety equipment and train local departments.

The company will be required to report annually to the MPSC on the success of these initiatives and the progress made. An important note for their customers is that they are not allowed to recover those program costs through customer rates.

DTE will also begin implementing a Large Customer Voluntary Green Pricing Program — a pilot meant to augment their already existing MIGreenPower pilot, which takes a largely residential and small business focused program and brings it to large commercial and industrial customers. These customers will be able to increase the amount of electricity they get from renewable energy by 5 percentage point increments and pay a subscription fee under five-, 10- or 20-year contracts.

The MPSC proceeding has been underway since May 2018.