DTE to invest $70 million to counter storm-caused outages

Faced with increasingly extreme weather across the country and the state of Michigan, DTE Energy announced last week that it would invest $70 million into reliability improvements to counter storm-caused outages without affected customer bills.

“We tripled our tree trimming effort and doubled our infrastructure upgrades several years ago when we began to see more severe weather patterns,” Jerry Norcia, DTE president and CEO, said. “But the extreme weather we experienced this summer — nine hard hitting, severe storms in nine weeks — is something we have never experienced. That’s why we made the decision to invest even more now, directing an additional $70 million into tree trimming to combat the large and recurring outages that have been so challenging for our customers.”

Notably, the incremental $70 million investment will be in addition to DTE’s annual $190 million tree trimming program. In the specifics, filed last week with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), it pledged to accelerate tree trimming work in areas hardest hit by extreme weather, fund trimming of an addition 3,500 miles and, accordingly, to increase both the tree trimming workforce by 300 employees and line workers by another 200 workers.

The investment was given new urgency by the five tornadoes that have struck DTE service areas so far this year, along with eight storms that provided tropical storm levels of wind, between 39-74 mph. Between the resulting high wind and ground moisture, trees, poles and wires were often damaged, prompting DTE to replace some 450 broken poles on August 11 alone. In that single incident, more than 500,000 customers lost power.

Still, DTE reports that in areas where tree trimming has occurred, communities have on average experienced 60 percent fewer outages. The company has been working to trim trees since 2016, and in that time, has pared down nearly 20,000 miles’ worth.