What newly approved DTE Electric rate hike means for your monthly bill in SE Michigan - WDIV ClickOnDetroit
What newly approved DTE Electric rate hike means for your monthly bill in SE Michigan
A Michigan commission approved a new $368 million rate increase for DTE Electric customers, which likely means you’ll be paying more soon.
The Michigan Public Service Commission approved the request, which was 40% less than the $622 million sought by the Southeast Michigan utility company.
With today’s approval of a $368,115,000 rate increase, a typical residential customer who uses 500 kilowatt hours of electricity per month will see an increase of $6.51, or 6.38%, on their monthly bill. The new rates will take effect Dec. 15.
DTE announced last month a reduction in residential bills, which took effect on Dec. 1. DTE said between the hike and reduction, residential customer will see a bill increase of 11 cents per day to support needed investments ($3.15 per month).
DTE Electric requested the rate increase to find its “planned infrastructure investments to boost reliability and speed up deployment of clean energy generation.”
MPSC also approved DTE Electric’s request to accelerate the its ongoing tree trimming surge to clear trees and branches from around power lines as fallen trees and branches are the leading cause of outages in Michigan.
MPSC also directed DTE Electric to work with MPSC Staff and stakeholders to develop a detailed regression analysis of customer demographics and reliability for vulnerable communities to be used in the company’s distribution plan case.
DTE Electric’s last rate increase was granted in November 2022, when the MPSC approved a $30,557,000 increase. It accounted for, on average, a 71-cent increase in residential bills.
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