Michigan Public Service Commission approves Consumers Energy rate hike for reliability upgrades
LANSING, Mich. (WILX) — The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has approved a rate hike for Consumers Energy electricity customers.
The Attorney General’s Department says that the MPSC approved a $154 million hike, 53% lower than the hike Consumers requested.
Consumers Energy had previously requested a $325 million combined rate hike in May 2024. The AG’s office says this would have resulted in an 8.2% increase in electricity rates for customers.
READ MORE: Consumers Energy creates payment assistance programs
The current rate hike resulted in a 2.8% increase.
“Only 12 months since their last rate hike was approved, Consumers Energy customers are facing yet another rate hike in what has become a never-ending cycle,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “Consumers Energy and DTE keep coming back to the trough, and over and over again Michiganders are forced to pay higher and higher bills just to keep the lights on. I applaud my team’s efforts in blunting the impact of this increase on ratepayers’ bills, but yet again electric rates are rising for Consumers Energy’s customers. Fighting these constant rate hikes is unending, year-round work in my office, and we’ll continue to stand on guard for Michigan utility customers.”
Nessel argued that Consumers Energy should have been granted an even lower rate hike increase, saying $82.9 million — or a 1.8% price increase — would be enough.
Consumers Energy says the rate hike is necessary to deliver upgrades to two million homes and businesses.
“We plan to roll up our sleeves and accelerate building the electric grid for the next generation,” said Greg Salisbury, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric grid design. “We want our neighbors to know we will be working every day to make our system more reliable and more resilient to keep the lights on, even after the worst storms.”
Consumers received approval to perform line-clearing work. Consumers says downed trees are the main cause of outages, and that the energy company plans to clear trees along 8,000 miles of power lines.
The energy company also plans to upgrade infrastructure and invest in technology to detect and respond to outages faster.
The upgrades are part of Consumers’ reliability roadmap.
MORE ENERGY NEWS:
Consumers Energy to explore the option of using geothermal energy
New state regulations could fine DTE, Consumers $10M if they fail to improve reliability
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