Michigan PSC approves increased power outage compensation for residents
Following winter storms that caused widespread power disruptions and backlash against DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) last week voted through serious increases to power outage credits and strengthened rules for regulated utilities.
Until this change, customers of Michigan’s utilities had to apply for such credits through their utilities in the wake of power outages, but as of Friday, March 24, they will be granted an additional $35 – up from $25 – per day in automatic credits for each day they were without power. These credits will be instituted in a sort of tiered fashion: after 96 hours during catastrophic conditions, meaning 10 percent or more of a utility’s customers without power; after 48 hours of gray sky conditions affecting between 1 percent and 10 percent of a utility’s customers; and after 16 hours of normal conditions.
“The credits may not cover all of the losses electric customers face when they lose power, but this is a major step forward,” MPSC Chair Dan Scripps said. “Not only is the outage credit more, it’s also no longer a one-time credit per incident, and customers will no longer have to request the credits from utilities.”
These credits won’t help those who endured the recent ice and snow storms in the Lower Peninsula, but they will provide relief for future, long-duration outages. In a boon to consumers, these credits will also be tied to the inflation rate, so they could rise as inflation rises, reducing the chance of their efficacy being outpaced or muted.
The commission also shortened the required times for utilities to restore long-duration outages, reduced the amount of time first responders are required to guard downed wires until relieved by a utility lineworker, modernized the reliability standards for performance, and created annual reporting requirements for rural electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities so that the MPSC can review their operations for service quality and reliability.
Among other things, recent cases also brought updates to technical standards for reporting on outages, new requirements for utility line clearing programs and metering, cybersecurity demands, and more requirements to guarantee customers’ services can’t be shut off without notice first, or customers billed for company issues with billing or meter registration.
“Today’s approval of updated and improved rules governing utility service quality and reliability, technical standards, and billing practices are critical to ensuring that residents throughout the state of Michigan have access to the safe and reliable electric services that they expect and deserve,” Commissioner Tremaine Phillips said.
