As Michigan’s biggest electric utilities try to bounce back from slow restoration times and customer headaches, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has launched a new tool that may help customers see if their utility is putting its money where its mouth is.
MPSC says the application allows the public to access utility reliability data, analyzing utility performance at a “first-in-the-nation” level of detail. The new application allows a ZIP Code-level view of reliability data for Michigan’s two largest electric utilities, DTE Electric Co. and Consumers Energy Co., which combined serve more than 80% of Michigan customers.
Utility customers and other interested individuals can access the new data and maps at the MPSC’s GIS Hub Site, where links to other MPSC geographic information system (GIS) maps and applications that provide a growing amount of important energy data to the public can be found. The public can access the data from that page by clicking on “Electric Reliability” or directly at the app’s webpage.
Customers can click on their ZIP Code to see the average time they spend without power, how often they lose power, and the average time it takes for their power to be restored. MPSC argues this feature lets customers see how their utility performs in their ZIP code, whether the utility is actually improving reliability over time, and how that improvement compares to other ZIP codes.
“Michiganders deserve reliable and affordable energy services and transparency into the performance and location of the critical infrastructure that serves them,” said Commissioner Katherine Peretick. “We want the MPSC to be a source of accessible information so that customers, community organizations, researchers, businesses and others can engage in the regulatory process with ample data to help inform and shape decision-making.”
For now, the data are limited to DTE Electric and Consumers Energy electric customers. MPSC is working with other utilities to add their data to expand the breadth of information available.
In 2025, the MPSC unveiled a publicly available GIS Hub Site for maps focused on where Michigan gets its energy. The maps include utility service areas for all electric utilities in Michigan, as well as maps showing the locations of electric generation facilities ranging from those fueled by natural gas, coal or nuclear power to renewable energy sites including solar, wind and hydropower, and the routes of pipelines transporting natural gas, crude oil and refined petroleum products.
In 2024, Consumers Energy agreed to pay a $1 million fine over complaints of faulty meters and delays in electric and gas service. A subsequent audit also showed that Consumers Energy was lagging behind other utilities in its restoration times. The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) released results in September 2024 from an audit of DTE Electric Co. and Consumers Energy Co., an examination of the operations of the state’s two largest electric utilities aimed at getting to the root causes of low reliability and slow service restoration times.
Consumers’ 2022 and 2023 CAIDI metrics both including and excluding MEDs were in the 4th Quartile, worse than average among utilities. Consumers’ 2022 and 2023 SAIDI metrics placed them in the 4th Quartile including MEDs and in the 3rd Quartile excluding MEDs. More than 10% of Consumers’ customers experienced four or more interruptions (CEMI4) and more than 25% of its customers experienced interruptions of eight hours or more (CELID8hours) in 2023. Additionally, the utility’s use of catchall “weather” and “unknown” cause codes for outages is imprecise and masks what actually causes outages, MPSC said.
However, early last year, Consumers Energy said its average customer experienced 21 fewer power outage minutes in 2024 compared to 2023, and more than 93% of customers saw their power restored in less than 24 hours. In 2023, Consumers Energy restored power within 24 hours nearly 87% of the time.
