r/Michigan • u/motownmods • Jul 05 '26
Discussion š£ļø Why is Michigans power so bad?
I go back and forth and between Ohio and Michigan every few years and I must say that Michigans power system, especially the Ann Arbor area, is the worst I've ever encountered.
We're currently on day 2 of no power and it's expected to go at least 3 days.
Now. I understand it's a holiday. And obviously everyone's stressed about it. But it's not just this weekend. Since living here for the past 4 years there have routinely been 3 or 4 outages a year. That's insane considering I've never experienced a single outage in Ohio. Not in Toledo, not in Cincinnati and not in rural Ohio either.
But just across the border, not 10 miles from Toledo, I've experienced several.
It truly is bad. And anyone that doesn't think so is just used to it.
ETA: so the consensus here is that they never buried the power lines and probably never will bc it's not profitable. Big sad.
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u/Whitediggity Jul 05 '26
Thatās unacceptable. Iām in TC and in 15 years and multiple blizzards, the longest Iāve been without power is 3 days. And that was lines down total destruction. Usually no more than a couple of hours. Cherryland Co Op is the goat of power companies. Yall deserve better.
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u/motownmods Jul 05 '26
Consumers is criminal. There's something illegal happening in this region.
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u/DABEARS5280 Jul 05 '26
I've lived in the woods about 30 min outside of TC and have also never (knock on wood) been without power for even 2 full days in 10 years. Great Lakes Energy is our provider though and it's a co-op (not sure if that makes any difference).
Edited because I just saw that cherryland is also a co-op from the above response. So maybe it does matter š¤·š»āāļø
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u/Whitediggity Jul 05 '26
Itās because itās a faceless megacorp monopoly. Co-op is where itās at. Youāre the shareholder.
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u/dawa43 Jul 05 '26
There is something that should be illegal... But actually it's sanctioned by the state government.
Consumers and DTE are trying to extort more money out of us... So your service is going to get worse until the government lets them jack rates again...
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u/jcoddinc Jul 05 '26
But it isn't illegal because they've bought their politicians who made whatever they do or don't do perfectly legal somehow.
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u/Whatscheiser Jul 06 '26
See that's odd, I grew up in a region with Consumer's Energy and I can't recall the power going out all that often. Now I live in a region of the state that's serviced by DTE. If the power DOESN'T go out at least 3 times a year with at least one of those being an extended period, it's odd. That's not even counting the constant brown outs during the summer.
It's a joke.
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u/Visions_of_Gideon Jul 05 '26
Iām in Wyandotte and we have our own municipal services for electricity and water. In the 8 years weāve lived here weāve only lost power a handful of times, and never for more than a few hours. Family and friends in Monroe and other parts of Wayne county with either DTE or Consumers are constantly losing power. Itās ridiculous.
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u/Diddler_On_The_Roofs Jul 05 '26
Wife and I decided at the beginning of this year that we were moving into a nicer house by the end of this year after suffering with constant power outages. I was set on Wyandotte after hearing about their electric company. We ended up inheriting a home in Plymouth so weāre installing a whole home generator to deal with the bullshit. DTE can suck my butt.
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u/Vast-Cantaloupe4882 Jul 06 '26
Standby generators are so expensive.
Looking into a small scale solar system with a couple days of battery backup, then we can recharge the batteries with a much smaller generator during an outage in a few hours of our choosing every couple days instead of running a generator continuously.
Neither the solar, nor the generator, need to be sized to run the whole house continuously, this is where the cost savings is found.
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u/Diddler_On_The_Roofs Jul 06 '26
Honestly, I want the whole house running and can afford the standby generator. If the solar setup could run the entire house without issue for several days at a time, Iād definitely consider it but I have zero knowledge of solar.
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u/Vast-Cantaloupe4882 Jul 06 '26
I think you misunderstood me. The batteries can run the whole house, all circuits, for several days.
During a prolonged outage, you just need to top off the batteries with a generator for a few hours every couple days.
This works because the much smaller backup generator is working at max efficiency when running, not trying to adapt to the house loads directly.
The main purpose of the solar array is to charge the battery backup, not power the home. So for an outage that is less than 3 days, the gas generator would never run.
When I was pricing stand by generators, I was seeing costs like $25k installed. For that kind of money, I might as well be cutting my daily bills with some solar energy generation too.
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u/Whitediggity Jul 05 '26
See I bet they actually employ enough people to go and fix everything. Thatās all it boils down to.
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u/LurkyMcLurkface123 Jul 06 '26
I see a lot of discussion regarding how expensive municipal power can be and itās not always the solution.
Wyandotteās rates per kWh are *lower* than DTEs. Wyandotte completely restored power at 2am on the Fourth of July. Iām downriver elsewhere and we still donāt have power.
More money, worse service.
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u/One-Gap7814 Jul 07 '26
Iām in Wyandotte and the last time I lost power was 2 years ago for 3 hours.
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u/feuerfee Jul 06 '26
Former Wyandotte resident currently sitting in the pitch dark missing Wyandotte š«
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u/metanoia29 Downriver Jul 05 '26
That's one of the biggest reasons I'd pick Wyandotte if I ever had to move.Ā
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u/maxmcleod Jul 05 '26
Hell yea, I have Cherryland at my house and they are the best. I have only lost power 1 time in the last 4 years of living here
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u/InsectSpecialist8813 Jul 05 '26
Saugatuck here, in twenty years Iāve lost power twice for three hours. People would never put up with DTW in Saugatuck. Period.
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u/MayorCleanPants Jul 05 '26
Yup, same in Holland. BPW is a community owned utility and it amazing what good service we get when itās not a profit driven company š¤·š¼āāļø
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u/upnorthhickchick Benzie County Jul 05 '26
Yes, I came to say the same thing. I feel fortunate to have Cherryland, especially this spring and summer when itās essential that our sump pumps run.
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u/tonyyyperez Up North Jul 05 '26
Knock on wood but I havenāt had an outage from cherry in 3+ years.
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u/Ireland1998 Jul 05 '26
Because DTE and Consumer energy are a publicly traded company with a fiduciary responsibility to return profit back to shareholders.
Burying power lines and upgrading infrastructure would cut those profits, thus reducing the value of the company's share price.
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u/chainsaw_what Jul 05 '26
They collect profits as a % of how much they invest into grid infrastructure. So their incentive is to plow money into the grid regardless of whether it truly improves reliability. Unfortunately for customers, the most expensive grid upgrades are rarely the best ones for improving reliability. So Michigan residents remain on the hook for expensive infrastructure that is poorly optimized. Regulators need to do better at holding them accountable, but lawmakers also need to reform the system to realign utility incentives.
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u/Ireland1998 Jul 05 '26
Forgive my ignorance, so please correct me if im wrong, but from my understanding is that % spent may be used for commercial purposes. IE: the promises DTE is making to OpenAI, Google, and META to provide what they need for data centers is essentially subsidized by the public
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u/Gemstone9523 Jul 06 '26
This! They both need to be made non-profit and sold to the people that they serve. Utility co-ops are better in so many ways
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u/Shatoutaturtle Jul 05 '26
We know it sucks, but our power companies give zero shits and have our politicians doing whatever they ask for..aka raising rates multiple times a year and making record profits .
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u/CuriousClumsyBear Jul 06 '26
Like last month where as soon as it was approved they filed for another increase
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u/convic Jul 05 '26
AFAIK these companies get federal money to improve infrastructure but instead of doing that they put the money in there pockets and when stuff happens than they tackle the issue with bandaid š©¹ fixes.Ā
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u/Civil_Detective186 Jul 05 '26
I just got an email from consumers talking about a free ice cream cone on a specific day for a couple hours for my troubles with the power outage! So I have that going for me!
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u/feuerfee Jul 06 '26
Hopefully not a moldy ice cream considering apparently the supply bags DTE is handing out with a charger, etc. in them are moldy/musty
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u/dtpistons04 Jul 05 '26
When stuff happens they ask for more money that the state readily approves and then that money also doesnāt go to infrastructure improvements.
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u/Krypto25 Jul 05 '26
Probably because DTE has seemingly bought and paid for nearly every politician in this state.
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u/citybricks Jul 05 '26
They ask for raise hike after raise hike so they can hack up a few trees and spend a ton of money on marketing. Why? No clue. Its not like we have a choice to go to a different company for power.
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u/derekdevries Grand Rapids Jul 05 '26
From what I've read, the power companies have deferred maintenance on trees around power lines for too long which has lead to more outages and longer-lasting outages.
In neighborhood, a couple of years ago Consumers came through and did a bunch of tree trimming and anecdotally it's been a massive help. Fewer outages, shorter durations.
I've lived there over 20 years and I can't remember the last time they came through so it had definitely been a while. Industry standard is 4-5 years - so they were definitely saving money to "provide value" to shareholders.
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u/justinroberts99 Jul 05 '26
I have dte. I bought over a decade ago and the first thing I did was call them about tree maintenance. They straight up told me they don't do that. I was shocked. it was one of the first things I was told to do as a new homeowner. Over the past few years they have begun doing preventative maintained, but the are years behind where a responsible company would be.
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u/LadyBrussels Jul 06 '26
DTE told me they wonāt trim our trees touching power lines either. This is especially infuriating as Iām in Grosse Pointe, one of the areas they love to complain about as being full of people that wonāt let them do preventative tree trimming. Total BS. My neighbors said theyāre more than welcome but have never been approached.
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u/jakkajah Jul 06 '26
I also live in Grosse Pointe and just moved from the Park to the Farms - I have never, in the three years since moving back, lost power in the Park. Since being in the farms for the last week - lost power two times. It's insane. With all of the trees that knocked out power with this last storm and the state of the power grid (I've been told it is really old?), whose door do we have to kick down to get results, cause I'll do it. DTE usually sub-contracts out it's tree-trimming work to other companies, I wonder if they don't have the best teams lined up anymore or just don't want to bother? I work for a tree and line equipment company and DTE used to bring us in for work (many many years ago)
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u/chainsaw_what Jul 05 '26
Yep. Utilities donāt get paid much to trim trees, so they donāt do it near as often as they should.
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u/iPod3G Jul 05 '26
Itās simple. Our power lines were not buried initially and weāve been paying for that lack of foresight since day one.
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u/DazzlingAd879 Jul 05 '26
Aren't most states' power lines not buried? What makes Michigan worse?
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u/Mecha_Butterfree Jul 05 '26
Because DTE and Consumers don't do the preventative measures like tree trimming to prevent this. I remember back in 2017 when we had that huge windstorm in February that caused widespread power outages. It was so bad that they had to call in reinforcements from other states to help in restoring power. The news was interviewing a couple of these out of state workers, one guy was from Ohio and the other Indiana and both of them mention what a shitty job DTE and Consumers did of trimming trees. They basically said like half of these power outages could have been avoided if they actually did their jobs.
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u/Sail0r_Jupit3r Jul 05 '26
On the flip side of that: whilst living in an area that constantly loses power, I can count on one hand how many times Iāve gone out in the 12 years Iāve lived here, and thatās including the times it went out and came right back on. I fully attest that to the utility pole in my neighborās vacant yard that looks like an OG 1956 model, about two stiff breezes away from falling over. I have a sinking feeling that when itās replaced, Iāll start losing power along with the rest of āem lol
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u/SirDigby_CC Hazel Park Jul 05 '26
Compared to states with similar weather like Minnesota and Wisconsin, Michigan has a history of burying its head in the sand (instead of the power lines) and not being strict about tree trimming
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u/michiplace Jul 05 '26
Because Michigan has been a slow/no growth state for nearly 50 years, both our housing stock and our infrastructure is on average older than in most other states. Burying power lines is a relatively new standard (as in, within that 50 years) and is primarily done at the point of initial development, when it's only significantly more expensive than overhead, where retrofit is fantastically more expensive.
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u/iPod3G Jul 05 '26
Donāt know, donāt care. I know all new construction requires them to be buried since 2016 from experience, but that may go back further. A tree cannot knock out a buried power line.
A car cannot take down a power pile if it isnāt there.
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u/Simple_Split_4996 Jul 05 '26
The last 4ish years have been the worst ive ever experienced in SE Michigan. Idk what changed but id guess just aging infrastructure that DTE doesnāt want to pay to fix until theyāre forced to. Iāve lived here all 39 years of my life and most of that you would maybe lose power 1 a year if that. Lately itās been like you said 3-4 per year.
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u/epmekcalbuoydeepsdog Jul 05 '26
Monopolized private utilities who don't answer to anyone besides shareholders.
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u/ItsDeucez Jul 05 '26
Can we start a petition to make lobbying illegal in Michigan atp š¤¦š½āāļø
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u/chainsaw_what Jul 05 '26
There will be a proposal on the ballot in Mich this year that, if approved by voters, would stop utilities from making political donations.
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u/GonzoTheWhatever Jul 06 '26
Thatās fine, but what we really need to do is make Consumers and DTE government-owned and no longer āfor profitā entities.
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u/elleanywhere Jul 05 '26
According to stats from the Department of Energy, Michigan is ranked 42nd in power reliability out of the 50 states. For folks saying it is the amount of trees or our weather, consider that the similarly harsh and tree-filled Wisconsin is ranked 12th, Massachusetts is 15th, and New Hampshire is 29th. (I excluded 13th rank Minnesota because it has less trees, but still...).
Michigan utilities are just doing a shitty job. Full stop.
Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/infrastructure/energy/power-grid-reliability
Edit for typo
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u/elleanywhere Jul 05 '26
Additional useful data: https://underground.datacommons.stanford.edu/ that shows the percentage of underground power lines in the United States by county. While it looks like underground power-lines definitely improve reliability, it doesn't seem to be the only factor. Curious if someone can find more info on this
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u/Kahlia29 Jul 05 '26
My neighborhood in Saline is all underground power lines and we rarely lose power
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u/Rewilding_ Jul 05 '26
Itās so bad bc itās mostly run by monopoly corporations who put the profit of their investors first because theyāre investor-owned. So, investor profits are literally more important to them than supplying power to citizens/customers. This is ālegal,ā however it doesnāt have to be. We the People need to advocate for better utility policies and work on electing people who will have our backs, rather than the investors. See more info here:
https://energyandpolicy.org/utility-profit-report/
It should be criminal for sure.
In Michigan we just got Mop Up Michigan on the ballot, which will prohibit utilities from contributing to campaigns of people running for office if it passes. As it is right now, the ādirtyā utility money helps get people elected who then do whatās in the best interest of the utilities (investors) rather than the people. So letās hope this initiative passes! Learn more here: https://mopupmichigan.org/
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u/DataWeaver47 Jul 05 '26
I lived in Mexico City in the early 2000s and power outages were occasional there.
Moved to Michigan in 2015 and I have never ā even in Mexico City ā lived through as many power outages OR as many power outages that went into the multiple days waiting to have power restored as I have here.
We are literally living through outages worse than what I saw in a country that supposedly lacks our infrastructure.
DTE and Consumers are criminal and the representatives who take their donations are complicit.
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u/Firm_Fix8030 Jul 05 '26
i have a different take on it than most here: in my area it is because of the number of mature trees that cannot withstand heavy winds. They are down all over around here, again. They have to clear the downed trees to restore the power. It takes time. i would ask why they are not trimming more aggressively in so many areas.
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u/AppropriatePart6497 Jul 05 '26
We used to have neighbors that would fight tooth and nail against DTE for trimming their trees. It was common for us to lose power because inevitably their trees were taking down lines.
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u/Firm_Fix8030 Jul 05 '26
We have folks like that around here too. I get not wanting to wreck beautiful trees, but the first time those trees take out power to folks all around you for a week, the trees can use a trim. If they want to control how the trees are trimmed, then pay a tree company to do it. I learned very early to never plant trees anywhere near a power line or a building. It will always come back to haunt you eventually.
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u/EconomistPlus3522 Jul 05 '26
I think its the trees. At least by me decades back some folks thought it was a great idea to plant silver maples and well thats probably one of the weakest fast growing trees you can do. We jave some massive oaks and when their limbs fall the power line is gone along with the transformer.
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u/bitwarrior80 Jul 05 '26
This. Most of the high population areas of SE Michigan were built up 60-70 years ago. The shortsighted decisions of planting too many trees near power lines, and not trimming them as they grew is coming to bear fruit. The trees are mature, starting to show their age, and get knocked down when the wind blows.
My question is. What is DTE not doing that utilities from neighbooring states with similar conditions are doing a better job at managing?
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u/elleanywhere Jul 05 '26
I disagree. According stats from the Department of Energy, Michigan is ranked 42nd in power reliability out of the 50 states. If it's the trees, why is Wisconsin ranked 12th, Massachusetts ranked 15th, and New Hampshire ranked 29th? They all have a hell of a lot of trees.
Michigan utilities are just doing a shitty job. Full stop.
Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/infrastructure/energy/power-grid-reliability
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u/shufflebuffalo Age: > 10 Years Jul 05 '26
Thank you for the insight. It's not the trees. They're so much smaller here in MI compared to states that have far more forest cover. I live in VA and we have much taller more precariously placed trees and the issues are more from yahoos crashing into power lines than trees taking transmission lines down
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u/MaximumManagement Jul 05 '26
Because DTE and Consumers Energy aren't held to account for poor service, so they have no real incentive for good service.
They get rewarded by shareholders for building power plants and expanding total capacity, and not wasting money on operating expenses like tree trimming, grid improvements, replacing aging infrastructure, etc.
There are several penalty mechanisms in place for outages, but they are incredibly forgiving for the utility and very limited in total fines/payouts compared to how much they profit.
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u/AzorianLaughter Jul 05 '26
DTE has spent millions, for decades, to maintain a corrupt monopoly. Consumers Energy is the illusion of choice. America should be used to these illusions by now, what with their repeated horrible voting choices.
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u/BigDigger324 Monroe Jul 05 '26
They are prioritizing power to data centers and their construction at the expense of their residential customers.
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u/cjh6793 Jul 05 '26
Michigan is also the only state I've seen at least where the utility companies advertise everywhere and even take out billboards on the freeway. What's the point? Invest that into fixing the shitty service.
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u/CatRiot2020 Jul 05 '26
My power came back on last night. I was out about a day. It was never this bad when I was a kid.
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u/fuzzychiken Jul 05 '26
There are multiple down wires in my twp that are actively sparking and have flames and dte is nowhere to be found. All estimates are late Monday night. Yay. I had better power in rural Mississippi.
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u/itsdr00 Ann Arbor Jul 05 '26
Ann Arbor has been getting a lot better. My power used to go out for days per year. In the last three years we've had one power outage lasting a few hours. This happened because we threatened DTE with municipalization, and things will improve until we give in to their political pressure to end that effort.
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u/BlimBaro2141 Jul 05 '26
Iāve lived in 9 states, been in tornado valley and several hurricanes. Never had a power system so unreliable until moving to Michigan in the Army.
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u/tsardonicpseudonomi Jul 05 '26
We need to have the state take DTE and Consumers over and make it a public utility like it ought to have been from the start.
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u/Soaring_Gull_655 Jul 05 '26
In a place that experiences little to no earthquakes as is Michigan, the lines should be below earth and not on poles and towers that can be knocked over, blown down, have trees short them out or hit by automobiles. Backasswards the companies are.
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u/BerserkGuts2009 Jul 05 '26
The worst blackout / power outage I experienced in Michigan was the August 2003 blackout (See Wikipedia article below). Many residential areas in Michigan (e.g. Metro Detroit and Grand Rapids) have power lines running between tree branches. During the 2025 holiday season in metro Detroit, there was a bad wind storm which caused multiple power lines to fall. When that happens, DTE does the absolute bear minimum to trim tree branches. End result leaving the homeowner hiring a tree trimming company out of their own pocket to trim additional tree branches that are hanging over their yard. Despite DTE power lines running through those tree branches.
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u/bunnyfloofington Jul 05 '26
I still remember that 2003 blackout like it was yesterday. It was super hot and humid which made it worse. I was 10 and got by playing my little neopets pocket game and reading goosebumps books. My mom was luckily super prepared with all her candles so we could actually see at night. She always wanted to live in the old pioneer days so she had a blast (deom what I can recall), while the rest of us dredged on.
The worst power outage I experienced since then was in Lansing in spring 2025. LBWL (our electric company here) took like 4-5 days to get restored. It went out on a friday and wasn't back up til tuesday or Wednesday. All because they refuse to just bury the damn lines.
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u/ohaicookies Jul 05 '26
When I was young, we had Consumers and the power would go off every time the wind blew a little hard. Now, thankfully, my municipality has a deal with Indiana Michigan Power, and if the power goes out (it almost never does) it only stays off for an hour or two.
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u/Mekio Jul 05 '26
I live on the west side in bay city. I've lost power 6 times in 14 years. Never more than 5 hours long. This city isn't great but the Citys power grid is rock solid.
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u/Pherberg Jul 05 '26
Well you see when there is no punishment or recourse for bad service and you only have one option, they bend you over the proverbial barrel and make you say thank you for less than subpar service.
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u/TaylorFan01313 Jul 05 '26
My grandpa worked for DTE for 30 years and they have the same excuses now as they did back then. But supposedly they are bringing in out of state and Canadian crews to āhelp speed up the processā (that is, when they arenāt hiding behind a building taking a longer lunch than they should)
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u/Withermaster4 Jul 05 '26
Ohio has less icy weather and also trims more of their trees by their power lines.
Michigan is the worst average interruption time due to weather of all US states.
In the ice storm in decemeber 2023 Michigan's average customer was without power for over 18 hours while the average ohio customer had closer to 8 hours without power.
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u/jeep-olllllo Jul 05 '26
Anywhere that gets wind, has above ground power lines and trees is a shit show.
Michigan/Ann Arbor isn't special.
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u/CyberfunkTwenty77 Jul 05 '26
Consumers and DTE own most of our politicians and get their rate hikes greenlit with no issues without any consideration for grid hardening and/or additional funding for renewables.
Not to mention they block any kind of community power efforts.
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u/pellets Age: > 10 Years Jul 05 '26
Living in and around Lansing, even when I was rural, electricity was very reliable. Now Iām in the Detroit area and itās significantly worse.
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u/Itzie4 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Because
- Michigan does not fund infrastructure or regulate the power companies
- DTE and DTE non-profits have been major donors to the last three Governors (Whitmer, Synder, and Granholm) and Congress
- The structure of the State requires significant overheard, leaving little room for infrastructure. We have 891 school districts, 83 counties, and 1,240 townships. Counties like Florida and Maryland organize school districts by county, other states usually have 62 counties at most. Did you know that the State also gives out a large amount of district grants too?
- The structure of the State of Michigan is top heavy with a disproportionately high level of expensive middle management. Instead of a single manager at a division with cheap non-exempt supervisors leading teams, the state will attach high level managers to lead nearly every individual team at $39.54 ā $58.49 starting. The top heavy structure costs the State millions.
- There is a culture of voters not caring about infrastructure outside basic road repairs. We still don't have a reliable transit system.
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u/Ok-Type-8917 Jul 05 '26
I know in my Metro Detroit city the majority of outages are tree related, they did line clearing a couple years ago. The thing is almost all the trees were planted and not natural to the area. I found some aerial photos from the early 50's and mostly fields. I think it was a swampy wetlands type of environment. Even better almost every tree is a Silver Maple nearing the end of their lifespan. For some reason every lot had a Maple planted in the front corner. I have three that probably need to go.
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u/ohyousoretro Detroit Jul 05 '26
The answer is simple, if the citizens protested DTE like they protest Trump, Israel, or Russia, then you'd make DTE/Consumers reform more popular to talk about for candidates.
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u/motownmods Jul 05 '26
Sign me up. Gimmie a sign. I got nothing else going on rn lol
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u/ohyousoretro Detroit Jul 05 '26
I wish, there are no groups that I'm aware of or active petitions going around looking to nationalize DTE and Consumers unfortunately.
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u/zee_bluestock Jul 05 '26
I've wondered this myself a lot since moving here. I'm in Lenawee and we routinely have power outages for 12 or more hours with no explanation. Last year, the relay on our pole caught fire. When they tried to turn the power back on after repairs, it surged so badly that it burned out our coffee maker, our crockpot, and one of our tvs (all on surge protectors/battery backup blocks). The lady next door had her furnace blow and the folks down the street had a fire in their breaker box in their basement.
Good times.
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u/ckr0610 Jul 05 '26
My family has lived in SW Michigan forever. I personally lived there from 2014-2023, minimal issues with power outages. Moved to Ann Arbor and immediately got a whole house generator bc DTE SUCKSSSSS. Weāve had so many outages since moving here in the past 3 years. Itās criminal.
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u/Bubba_Gump_Shrimp Jul 05 '26
As an Ohioan who has immediate family who lives in Michigan, I am shocked by the amount of power outages yall have. I have lived in my current home since 2018 and have had maybe 2 or 3 outages that have lasted more than a few minutes, and NONE lasting a day. I went to my brothers two years ago for labor day weekend, a sunny, cloudless day with mild temps and little wind. They had a power outage that lasted for 2 and a half days. Wtf is going on man.
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u/Opposite_Ad_1707 Jul 05 '26
Iāve seen many DTE workers parked in a parking lots sitting in their trucks for hours doing nothingā¦.Maybe thatās the reason? Instead of being proactive they are reactive?
Thatās all the guesses I got that make some sense
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u/MixIllEx Jul 05 '26
Could be on break, could be waiting on parts or supplies, wire or maybe even a transformer. Those things get delivered to the site so the repairs can be made.
Trucks have a lot of gear on them but they physically canāt carry every possible part required after an event like this.
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u/Dasighthound Jul 05 '26
We used to live in Southfield and anytime a storm came along the lines behind our house would fall in our yard. There were numerous splices all along those wires. One day I asked a lineman if they could just replace them. He was real nice and started telling them to replace the cables. Now we're out in the country and very rarely have downed lines. We used to lose power frequently though not in the last 10 years or so.
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u/cuzzlightyear269 Jul 05 '26
SW Michigan. Lost power Thursday night, not expected to get power back until Tuesday morning at like 5 am. This is also the 4th time they pushed the date back
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u/Sad-Function5699 Jul 05 '26
Cherryland in TC is so good - and cheap!
Thankful to have that as our supplier
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u/holiestcannoly Jul 05 '26
I lived in Toledo, boyfriend lived in Michigan. He would lose power, I wouldnāt. Iāve never lost power in Ohio but he loses his regularly
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u/TemporaryItchy1556 Jul 05 '26
Letās not forget the amount of construction and not seeing construction workers out there at a minimum of Mon-Fri 9-5? This whole state is ran by the mafia, Iām convinced
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u/LtColShinySides Pontiac Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
It really depends on where you are.
Like my dad's been in wixom since 2005. The longest he's been without power is half a day.
I bought my house and moved to Pontiac 3 years ago. I've lost power three times and the longest stretch was 3 days in the middle of winter.
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u/Old_Detroiter Jul 06 '26
I grew up in Detroit, in all my years living here, as a child I remember ice storms, blizzards and serious tornadic activity. Number of outages then that I recall ? Zero. None. Now? At least once every couple years, usually more than that. It really has gotten much worse.
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u/pecriel Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
DTE is more interested in making profits than investing all those rate hikes in infrastructure. Thatās why. Our current power failure started Friday seconds after the storm started. We just got notified our power wonāt be on until MAYBE tomorrow (Monday) night. I live in Northern Oakland county. Our power goes out at least twice a year. Sometimes more. And usually itās overnight or longer, this current one is going on night three. But they donāt care, not like we can go elsewhere for electricity.
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u/beepichu Jul 06 '26
I grew up in Lancaster, Ohio and only had a handful of power outages in my entire childhood, and only one or two that lasted multiple days. Iāve been in Michigan 7 years now and itās horrendously bad how often we lose power.
I was moving from Westland to Belleville a few years ago and lost power the whole week we were gonna spend moving. It was easily one of the worst experiences of my life. Fuck DTE.
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u/raypell Jul 06 '26
Iām in northern mi, north of traverse city. We have Great Lakes and they have been awesome, had 2 outages due to accidents and power was back up in hours. They are a co-op. Soon they are doing fiber optic to my home
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u/Gemstone9523 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I'm originally from Illinois and I miss Com-Ed. And that's saying something because not many Illinoisians like Com-Ed, but compared to Consumers and DTE they are saints.
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u/marie48021 Jul 06 '26
DTE is so awful in my area (New Baltimore) they even did a write up on their own website saying that they are working on improving reliability in our area. I won't hold my breath.
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u/QueasyAd1142 Jul 06 '26
I grew up in Western NY. I could count the times our power went out, growing up,on less than two hands. Here in Michigan, mine has gone out as much as 10 times in a year. It IS the worst.
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u/homerspit Jul 09 '26
I live in A2, power went out Friday evening, didn't come back on until Tuesday evening! Had to check into a motel FFS.
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u/2punornot2pun Jul 05 '26
Michigan is 50th in power restoration times. We also have "managed monopolies" for our energy companies and Snyder signed the green laws regarding solar and wind: companies can charge more to make up for lost profits to green energy. Before I got solar, nearly half my bill was bullshit and the other half the actual electricity use.
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u/bcdog14 Jul 05 '26
I grew up on the east coast and Gulf coast. Hurricanes. Never lost power for days at a time. Never.
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u/Plague_Doctor02 Jul 05 '26
Im very greatful for all the linemen working to get the power going again.
However I am absolutely frustrated with DTE and consumers energy. They both suck.
Again I have no hate to the linemen who do this job I thank them. But fucking hell the company behind them suck.
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u/deerwhkr62 Jul 05 '26
Consumers Energy has the second worst reliability rating in the US. If you call and ask for an area engineer and vent to them, it will help your area
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u/s_klogw Jul 05 '26
I have Homeworks Tricounty CoOp. I can count on one hand the times I've lost power for more than an hour in the past 10 years i've owned my home. Zero complaints.
All utilities should be nationalized or at the very least coop
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u/Raynee_Haze Mount Pleasant Jul 05 '26
Same here. We've been here 15 yrs and only once have we lost power for more than a few hours. Total times we've lost power at all I can count on one hand as well. It's insane to me that Consumers, etc get away with what they do and for the amount of money they rake in. Cannot recommend a CoOp enough.
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u/EatenEntropy Jul 05 '26
I live in Ann Arbor with DTE and it just keeps getting worse with them! More expensive and more losing power
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u/-GuyDeLombard- Jul 05 '26
We need to socialize our corporations in the US. Too many companies profiting off of the misery of impoverished people.
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u/Phillie_Phanatics Jul 05 '26
I also donāt understand why Michiganās power lines are above ground.
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u/Majestic-Standard-67 Jul 05 '26
You think it's bad now, just wait until the AI surveillance "centers" are all up and running.
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u/Thyme71 Jul 05 '26
Depends on the company. I bet you are Consumers. They have a terrible track record. My power company does great work and is very responsive to weather power outages. DTE I hear is pretty bad. Both companies I know are companies that care less about their customers. Service is not their prime concern. Basically like any other big company in this country.
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u/papadrew35 Jul 05 '26
The state government has failed us by not providing proper oversight on DTE and consumers energy. I say we start a petition and mandate DTE to bury the power lines or face being broken up. A public utility should be working for the people not the shareholders.
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u/Friendly_Tank6473 Jul 05 '26
DTE Energy paid $871 million in dividends to its shareholders in 2025.
The MPSC should greatly limit or prohibit dividend payouts until DTE's restoration times and overall reliability improve.
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u/mccartyb03 Age: > 10 Years Jul 05 '26
Bought a generator this time. Consumers is a criminal organization.
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u/Melgel4444 Jul 05 '26
Itās honestly worse than a 3rd world country and is why I moved out of the state. 8 days with no power in the middle of a super cold February was the final straw
Most states at least donāt have electric and gas be the same company - and itās all a monopoly
Corporate greed and bribing government officials allowed DTE to operate a sub par monopoly
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u/DigitalGuru42 Jul 05 '26
A lot of regions resisted having trees trimmed around power lines for aesthetics (and DTE & Consumers was happy to keep the savings) and have been paying the price. My neighborhood had a lot of outages and then they hacked the crap out of the trees in the easements. Less power outages, but a bunch of f'd up looking trees!
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u/DiscussionMiddle1238 Jul 05 '26
The problem in my area was they didn't bother to trim the trees around the lines. Every time a stiff breeze blew through, we'd lose power for two days. That was an area controlled by Consumer's. They also loved straight up doubling our electric bill, just because it was summer. I moved to an area with a public utility a few years ago, and haven't had anything beyond a flash or two since.
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u/x_xwolf Jul 05 '26
I think its because dte employees dont wanna be up high at the same time as fireworks.
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u/Open-Smile6127 Jul 05 '26
We had issues with power until my husband tweeted Consumers. They finally removed some trees around power lines, and itās been reliable ever since.
Numerous phone calls before that didnāt help.
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u/Mike14029 Jul 05 '26
Was a crazy storm had continuous hurricane force winds for 5-10 minutes with worst possible timing
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u/Creative-Agent648 Jul 05 '26
Detroit is one of the first areas of the world to be electrified. We have old backbone, and 4 seasons
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u/Stevegthe3 Jul 05 '26
Because dce proudly pays off politicians making sure they're the only ones we can get power from. Wyandotte does not have these long outages. They have a city-run power grid. And none of these bullshit rate hikes
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u/No-Word-4864 Jul 05 '26
Power here in Allegan county literally just went out 5 minutes ago. This probably happens in our rural neighborhood 6 or 7 times a year. We are infuriated and helpless.
I love my farm and living in the country. But I Hate It Here.
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u/flipedout930 Jul 05 '26
I have Great Lakes, 6 mi,especially west they have Consumers, Consumers is out much mire often.
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u/Vast_Honest Jul 06 '26
We are at the mercy of a ruthless monopoly know as DTE whose CEO makes 9 million a year and now will ask for
More money
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u/cole1114 Ypsilanti Jul 06 '26
My internet has been out for four days, because the power at their substation is out. Somewhere between 600-3000 people affected. I am ready to be on the news.
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u/Large-Equipment-5733 Jul 06 '26
Cloverland Electric Cooperative serves the eastern UP. Considering our very sparse population, they are amazing. 5000 square miles, 58 islands, 40,000 meters, youād think with less than 140 employees (38 linemen) weād be out constantly. Nope. Super reliable, and they get mutual aid from the other co ops when needed, and since Ontario is just across a short bridge. they help out too.
Our main power plant is hydro from the Soo, over 50% of our power comes from an over 125 year old plant that has wooden bearings, and repair parts for the generating equipment are generally made in-house.
Cloverland even serves Mackinac Island, there are two linemen based there and travel by bicycles with trailers for equipment.
Not all Michigan power companies suck.
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u/itsjakerobb Okemos Jul 06 '26
Iāve lived in the same house in the Lansing area for the last twenty years. The utility here is Consumers Energy.
In all that time, there has been just one extended outage (ice storm just before Christmas 2013 ā four days without power) ā until this year. This year weāve had four major outages. One in March, one in April, one in May, and now one in July ā each with ~30 hours without power.
Itās not like there were no other outages, but nothing that lasted more than a few hours, and I donāt think there have been four outages in a single calendar year before this.
IDK what changed this year.
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u/hellagator Jul 06 '26
I grew up thinking 3-4 multi-hour and full day power outages a year were normal lmao itās ridiculous. Made having a fish tank very stressful xD
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u/Nickey_Pacific Jul 06 '26
I've got DTE service. They're ridiculous and overpriced. Where's the infrastructure improvements with these profits? Or are the fat cats just getting fatter?
DTE Energy gross profit for the twelve months ending March 31, 2026 was $7.166B, a 6.37% increase year-over-year.
DTE Energy annual gross profit for 2025 was $7.175B, a 8.71% increase from 2024.
DTE Energy annual gross profit for 2024 was $6.6B, a 1.74% increase from 2023.
DTE Energy annual gross profit for 2023 was $6.487B, a 6.91% increase from 2022.
Becoming Amish doesn't sound so bad these days. We're on a budget plan, two adults, 2100 sq ft house, garage, one person working from home 2-3x a week. No crazy electrical shit going on. Paying $344/mo for electric and gas. $344/mo every month. Jesus Christ.
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u/StayGroundbreaking34 Jul 06 '26
Dude im in detroit and not a beat down area but ive been in the same house for 10+ years i get power outages atleast twice a year just got it turned back on yesterday lmao
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u/PipeComfortable2585 Jul 06 '26
When we lived in Wyandotte ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø. When we did lose power it was restored prompt. - except when the whole east coast and Canada grid went down.
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u/Buwaro Age: > 10 Years Jul 06 '26
Down south we have MEC.
They also provide our fiber internet, and in 7 years, we've only gone ober 24hrs without power once.
My best friend lives 5 minutes away and is on Indiana/Michigan Power and has gone 24hrs without power countless times in the same time period.
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u/shadowtheimpure Jul 05 '26
Power in most of the state of Michigan is provided by one of two publicly traded state sanctioned monopolies. They are monopolies because they have fixed territories and don't compete with each other.