During a month of historic storms that times left nearly a million Michigan residents without electricity, and with the prospect that climate change will make such storms common, the state’s Public Service Commission issued an emergency order Wednesday requiring investor-owned utilities to report on response following the storms, efforts to minimize downed power lines and other damage, and proposals to improve the grid’s reliability including running lines underground (U-21122).

The PSC said that despite progress utilities have made in mitigating damage from heavy storms, “the realities of a changing climate make it likely that Michigan will experience storms that are more extreme, and will experience them more frequently, than it has in the past.”

The order calls for the utilities to undertake a number of steps, including:

• • reporting on how efforts to control vegetation have improved grid reliability;
  • ranking the 10% worst performing lines circuits in 2021;
  • planning how to address customer outage credits, making those credits automatic, and expanding outage credit amounts and automatic eligibility; and
  • summarizing their power restoration efforts, as well customer communications efforts, and how to improve both.

Michigan has been slammed by a series of dramatic storms this summer, with heavy rains and high winds. The worst occurred Aug. 10-11, leaving nearly 1 million customers of most utilities in the state — especially Consumers Energy (NYSE:CMS) and DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) — without power. Emergency crews had to come in from other states to assist in reconnecting customers. DTE alone saw more than 3,100 downed power lines as a result of that storm, and there have been other heavy if not ferocious storms this month.

In fact, the Aug. 10-11 storm was among the two heaviest DTE has experienced in its century-long history, the other being in the summer of 2017.

PSC Chair Dan Scripps said that this year alone showed that with climate change, more severe weather will happen more frequently.

“For a long time we have used historical data” to assess how to prepare for storms, Scripps said. “I’m not sure that’s appropriate anymore.” Utilities and policymakers have look at how to prepare for and respond to “a future that may look materially different than what we have seen in the past.”

The order recognizes more will be expected from the grid as greater electrification will be needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the same that more severe weather becomes the norm, Scripps said.

It also calls on the utilities to provide a breakdown on costs to bury distribution lines across the state in order to minimize power interruptions.

Commissioner Tremaine Phillips said undergrounding lines is a “holy grail” of electric utility controversy. But it is time, he said, for a more “earnest look” at finding a place “between business as usual and undergrounding the system.”

The PSC also scheduled an Oct. 22 technical conference on emergency preparedness, distribution reliability and storm response.

Amy Bandyk with the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan praised the PSC’s move, saying it had “done the right thing for Michigan ratepayers by taking swift action to approve an order on new rules to protect consumers and improve the oversight of electric utilities following the devastating outages that have been the latest reminder of Michigan utilities’ poor electric reliability record.”

The Michigan PSC has jurisdiction over DTE, Consumers, Indiana Michigan Power, Alpena Power, Northern States Power, Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp. and Upper Peninsula Power Co. All must file reports in the docket no later than Sept. 24.

The inquest and technical conference is in response to an Aug. 20 letter Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sent to the PSC. In it, she “strongly encouraged” the PSC to preclude recovery of outage bill credits in any upcoming rate cases.

Michigan AG also Piqued

Meanwhile, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is collecting public input focused on Consumers and DTE, and asking residents and business owners to submit their outage experiences via an online form.

Nessel said she wants to “learn more about the impact the latest outages had on Michigan residents.”

In a press release, she said the utilities “need to work hard to restore trust with their customers.” She suggested the two re-establish consumer confidence by voluntarily issuing automatic outage credits in lieu of their current application processes and launching a fund to “assist customers displaced because of these increasingly frequent and powerful storms.”

“We know that climate change is having a significant real impact, and a business-as-usual approach is no longer sufficient. That is why it’s imperative that our utility companies adapt to the changing climate and needs of their thousands of customers. Consumers Energy and DTE must do better than this,” Nessel said in a press release.

DTE has announced it will issue credits up to $100 for affected ratepayers; Consumers pledged automatic credits up to $25. Following the storm, Consumers set up mobile water and ice distribution — sometimes bringing pizzas ― for residents without power.

Nessel cited the Citizens Utility Board’s 2020 performance report, which found Michigan utilities classed in the bottom quartile for reliability performance when compared to other utilities in the country.

DTE CEO Jerry Norcia issued an open letter following the storms, apologizing to customers. He said the utility experienced six major storms in a span of eight weeks, and reiterated that August contained the second-most powerful storm on record in the utility’s 135-year history.

“Regrettably … close to 25% of you lost power. We know that is not acceptable,” Norcia wrote. “We can and must do better for you.”

Norcia said customers experienced inaccurate restoration estimates and updates during the ordeal. He said DTE will make stepped-up efforts in tree trimming and continue infrastructure upgrades aimed at reliability.

Consumers touted its $5.4 billion grid-hardening plan already in the works and increased forestry management.

“As an energy provider, we know keeping the lights on for our customers is job 1. To work to prevent outages, we’ve already more than doubled our investment in grid-hardening reliability and increased our forestry investment by more than 60% since 2018,” Consumers spokesperson Katie Carey said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to work with the Michigan Public Service Commission on improving reliability, in an affordable way, when historic weather events hit our state.”