As temperatures begin to drop, DTE’s electric team is focused on making sure the grid can meet the energy needs of the community this winter and into the future.
The company’s Distribution Operations team recently launched reliability projects in more than 50 communities across southeast Michigan.
Winter weather and trees are a dangerous combination for the electric grid. Heavy snow and freezing rain on tree branches can cause them to break, fall on to power lines and ultimately cause power outages.
That’s why DTE recently identified more than 30 communities to prioritize for surge work that will improve service for thousands of residential and business customers. Their experts are making targeted improvements in the identified neighborhoods from installing new poles and crossarms, placing animal guards on equipment to accelerating trimming trees along electrical lines. The communities were selected based on data-driven analysis which identified circuits that have experienced elevated levels of interruptions to electrical service over a period.
Plus, there are about 20 additional multi-year reliability projects happening in Wayne, Macomb, Oakland, Sanilac, Lapeer and Washtenaw counties. The improvement work includes building new substations, installing new substation equipment, reconfiguring overhead powerlines and moving overhead wires to underground.
In addition, this fall DTE’s distribution system experts, technicians and engineers in power-generating plants performed preventative inspections and maintenance on the electrical distribution system to ensure it is ready for winter.
To learn more about ongoing reliability projects happening in your community visit https://empoweringmichigan.com/reliability-improvements/.
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