Consumers Energy says it plans a huge expansion of its own weather stations by the end of next year.
Currently, the company has five weather stations in Gladwin, Ogemaw, Barry, Jackson, and Clare counties—places that have historically tended to suffer some of the most severe storm damage in the Consumers service area.
But with the number of intense and damaging stores increasing over time, the utility needs more hyper-local data than National Weather Service outposts alone can provide, according to Consumers spokesperson Trisha Bloembergen. She said the new weather stations—which measure conditions like wind speed and precipitation—will fill in those gaps, and help the company better anticipate and respond to storm damage.
“It will help us to accurately pre-stage our crews and resources, and have them start restoring [power] as soon as conditions make it safe to do so,” Bloembergen said. “That's why these weather stations will be so helpful in not only doing that pre-planning, but also during that restoration event."
The weather stations “are also set up near our infrastructure,” Bloembergen said. “It's nearby low-voltage distribution power lines, so that we can really get that localized data to help with the restoration efforts and our crews’ safety.”
The expansion will be both large and swift—the plan is to have a total of 100 Consumers weather stations in place by the end of 2027. Bloembergen said it’s part of the company’s broader “reliability roadmap,” with a goal of reducing storm-induced grid damage so that no more than 100,000 customers are impacted by any weather event, “and if they are impacted, we're able to restore them in under 24 hours.”
“We're not there yet,” Bloembergen added. “But we know that through continued investments in our reliability action plan, we can get there.”
Editor's note: Consumers Energy is among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.
