Consumers Energy is already gearing up to ask for another rate increase.
The Michigan Public Service Commission is currently considering amore than $423 million request from the Jackson-based utility. That's slightly less than the utility initially asked for last summer. The commission is expected to decide on that proposed increase during its meeting Friday.
Consumers leaders say they then intend to introduce their next rate increase request in June.
Per state law, public utilities are allowed to file for a rate increase a year after they have asked for their last one.
Consumers Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Legal Affairs Kelly Hall says the additional revenue will help fund upgrades included in the utility’s long-term reliability action plan.
That plan calls for never having more than 100,000 customers without electricity at a time and ensuring all outages last less than 24 hours.
"It's important to understand that we made this request to pay for the investments and work to make our grid more secure and more reliable for customers," she said.
Senior Vice President of Electric Distribution Greg Salisbury says the utility has the numbers to back that up including since 2021, average customers experiencing 28% less time without power during normal weather days
The utility also plans to bury more lines and to continue to clear aboveground lines of trees and branches as ways to increase reliability in the long-term.
"In that 2035 horizon that we anticipate having enough work done through these annual reliability action plans to begin to have a system that is resilient enough to the increasingly challenging weather conditions that when we do have widespread outages, there'll be fewer, and we'll be prepared to restore within 24 hours," he said.
Consumers says the average customer will see a $14 increase on their bill starting in May if the PSC approves the current rate request before commissioners. That would mean a typical monthly bill for a household would land at around $145 which Consumers says is below national and regional averages.
The PSC recently approved a more than 4.5% rate hike for DTE Energy customers that went into effect this month. The utility has already asked for another rate increase for the coming year. Attorney General Dana Nessel has intervened in that case and other rate increase requests from utilities including Consumers to bring down costs.
State lawmakers and advocates have pitched several ways to lower Michiganders' utility bills including freezing rate hikes, making Public Service Commission seats elected instead of appointed and expanding consumer energy choice.
The Consumers Energy Foundation is a financial supporter of WKAR.
