DTE offers $100 credit to customers still without power as of Monday

Power company DTE Energy said Thursday amid growing criticism that it had "voluntarily issued" $100 credits — significantly more than the $25 credits it normally offers — as a one-time courtesy to customers who still remained out of power on Monday morning from last week's storms, 

The Detroit power company has come under intense fire in the past week from customers, the news media and the state attorney general, who called on DTE to credit customers who continue to deal with power outages after severe weather. 

Attorney General Dana Nessel said Monday she was "once again calling" on the the state's two power companies "to voluntarily credit customers affected by the outages and to provide greater credits to assist customers who have lost hundreds of dollars or more in food and alternative housing costs."

On Thursday, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters piled on, calling for the Michigan Public Service Commission and the Legislature to conduct oversight hearings on the failures by DTE and Consumers Energy to prevent outages and reconnect customers following summer storms.  

The Michigan League of Conservation Voters said Michigan’s leaders "should demand DTE and Consumers increase the $25 power outage credit for customers that lost power in recent storms, make those payments automatic without a complicated paperwork process."

The nonpartsian political group also took aim at DTE's executive compensation.

"For years now, our residential rates have been skyrocketing, eating up more of family budgets, and yet all we get is more blackouts, longer outage times, and less reliability," said Bob Allison, deputy director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. "DTE and Consumers seem content to rake in massive, windfall profits while families and businesses across Michigan suffer without power."

At the height of the outage, DTE said about 550,000 customers were without power. 

As of Sunday night, the company said, it had restored electricity to about 95% of its impacted customers. The company would not, however, confirm Thursday whether that meant the remaining 5% of those customers received $100 credits.

By Wednesday, all but a very few customers had their power back, the company said.

According to DTE's website, DTE will provide customers "a $25 credit upon request if our investigation of your request determines you have experienced" an outage of more than 120 hours under catastrophic conditions or "a power outage of more than 16 hours under non-catastrophic conditions."

And if you have "eight or more outages" within 12 months." 

DTE said Thursday it also is "proactively applying a $25 Reliability Credit to the accounts of customers who have experienced outages during last week’s storm totaling more than 120 hours," and customers "will see the $25 credit as a line item called Reliability Credit" on their bills.

The power company also said it "will be notifying customers who qualify to receive the credit by next week," and they will see it applied on an account billing statement "within the next 45 days." It also said it is "focusing on investing our resources into improving our customer experience and power reliability."

To apply for the $25 credit, DTE requires customers to compete an online form. 

"We understand that storm-related damage to your property is inconvenient, upsetting and can pose a financial burden," DTE said on its website. "When the damage is caused by an act of nature — such as a storm, wind or lightning — DTE Energy is not legally responsible."

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According to the independent Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, which represents residential energy customers, the state's utilities lag far behind other states for reliability. Michigan utilities had the second-worst restoration time per outage in the nation, even on days without major storms.

DTE Energy and Consumers Energy also have been criticized for being among 55 publicly-traded corporations last year that paid no federal corporate income taxes, according to a report by a Washington D.C. think tank.

The analysis, released by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, found that, under provisions in the 2020 CARES Act and other tax advantages, the utilities had effective federal tax rates less than zero, or minus-16% for DTE and minus-4% for CMS.

Over the past few days, many customers however expressed outrage through social media that the credit was only $25, given that the outage, in many cases, forced them to seek shelter elsewhere and throw out food in their refrigerators and freezers that went bad.

And, in a column recently published in the Free Press, Amy Bandyk, the executive director of Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, argued that Michigan has "more severe power outages than most of the rest of the country, and it has been that way for years."

She added, without action, "consumers can expect to keep finding themselves in the dark again and again," especially with more severe weather caused by climate change and urged them to "call upon regulators and lawmakers to act with urgency to prevent more mass power outages."

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the percentage of DTE customers receiving credits.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.