electric outages

Budget woes hit the Detroit Downriver suburb of Ecorse, following the cougars of Michigan, upgrading the state's power grid and supply and updates on the damage caused by ice storms in the Upper Peninsula.

We're using more power, some of the electric grid is a century old, and severe storms caused by climate change are battering the distribution system, all while trying to make the transition to renewable power and clean energy.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved a plan to penalize the state's two largest regulated electric utilities up to $10 million if they miss targets designed to improve reliability. The plan will also reward the companies by up to the same amount if they meet or exceed the targets.

An independent audit confirmed other reports finding that DTE Energy and Consumers Energy have worse-than-average storm outage response track records.

Consumers Energy and DTE Energy reported about 350,000 outages Tuesday evening after a line of thunderstorms swept through the Lower Peninsula.

Officials with Consumers Energy warned that power could take longer than usual to be restored, as high winds in the forecast might prevent crews from working on the lines.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has launched a case involving a "straw" proposal, to start an informal process of gathering feedback on new penalties or incentives to improve electric reliability by DTE and Consumers Energy.

Some Michigan House lawmakers are responding to this winter’s widespread blackouts with a new task force.

A few weeks ago, more than a 700,000 customers of DTE and Consumers Energy faces outages. Power may be back on, but the consequences are lingering.

Last week, state House members grilled DTE and Consumers Energy officials about the outages. This week, it's the Senate's turn