Consumers Energy begins undergrounding two miles of power lines in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula
Work began this week to bury two miles of Consumers Energy power lines near Standish, Mich., as a smaller part of a year-long plan to bury 10 miles of power lines across six counties.
This segment will impact the northeastern portion of the Lower Peninsula, and crews should be at work on the project through most of July. Brief power interruptions should follow, spreading out from an area south of Standish, along Palmer Road.
“Consumers Energy has made a commitment to keeping the lights on more consistently with our Reliability Roadmap, and work like this shows how we can make that happen,” Chris Laird, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric operations, said. “When we bury power lines, we can significantly reduce the impact of storms, heavy snow, ice and even tornadoes that can cause outages. We know this work will provide a clear benefit to homes and businesses in the area.”
Such work is meant to improve local electric grids and shore them up against trees and inclement weather. Underground lines as such currently make up approximately 15 percent of the company’s electric system, with particular focus on areas of high population density. However, over the next five years, Consumers intends to bury more than 1,000 miles – and it’s spending $3.7 million to bury just 10 miles over this year.
The company cited its goals as twofold: to be able to restore power to all its customers within 24 hours and to make a system on which no more than 100,000 customers could lose power at any time.
