By: Jasmine West
More than 380,000 Michigan electric customers lost power after severe thunderstorms swept across the state on July 3, leaving many families without air conditioning, refrigeration and other necessities during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. While service has been restored for most customers, tens of thousands were still waiting for electricity to return days later.
For many of those residents, state rules require utilities to provide automatic bill credits if outages last beyond certain timeframes.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the prolonged outages have created significant hardships for residents.
“It is incredibly frustrating for the hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who have dealt with these power outages, including the tens of thousands still sitting in the dark, throwing out spoiled food, and wondering if they can even trust the estimated restoration times,” Nessel said in a statement.
As of Tuesday morning, roughly 35,000 customers across Michigan remained without power.
The outages affected customers served by several utilities across the state, including DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, which provide electricity to most Michigan households.
Under rules established by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), eligible customers do not have to apply for outage credits. Utilities are required to automatically issue qualifying credits based on how long an outage lasts and how widespread the event is.
Residential customers qualify for a minimum $42 credit if their outage exceeds certain thresholds:
- More than 16 hours if the outage affects 1% or less of the utility’s customers.
- More than 48 hours if the outage affects more than 1% but less than 10% of customers.
- More than 96 hours if the outage affects 10% or more of the utility’s customers.
If a qualifying outage continues beyond those thresholds, residential customers receive an additional $42 for each additional day they remain without electricity. Businesses also qualify for outage credits, although the calculation differs.
Customers may also be eligible for reliability credits if they experience repeated outages throughout the year. Households that have more than six power interruptions within a 12-month period, with each interruption lasting at least five minutes, qualify for a $42 reliability credit. Once that payment is issued, the interruption count resets.
Both DTE Energy and Consumers Energy have said eligible outage credits will be applied automatically to customers’ bills, meaning residents generally do not need to submit a request.
Still, state officials encourage customers to monitor their billing statements to ensure credits are received. Residents who believe they qualified but did not receive an outage credit can submit a Power Outage Credit Feedback & Inquiry Form through the Michigan Public Service Commission to report the issue and request a review.
The latest outages have renewed concerns about Michigan’s electric grid, which has drawn criticism in recent years following repeated storm-related outages that have left residents without power for days at a time. Consumer advocates and state officials have continued to push utilities to improve reliability while holding them accountable when service disruptions exceed standards established by state regulators.
For households already dealing with spoiled groceries, disrupted work schedules and extended time without electricity, the outage credits will not replace what was lost.
