DTE says billions of dollars in investment across the electric grid in the last few years have contributed to less frequent and shorter power outages. 

The heavy rain, high winds, ice and then snow all took a toll on our energy infrastructure this week. On Tuesday afternoon, DTE's outage map showed about 300 customers without power, which Brian Calka, senior vice president of distribution operations with DTE, said is a major improvement from the past. 

"We had over 100,000 people, um, customers out of power. But we were able to get the lights on very quickly for those customers," he said. "Last year was about a 70% reduction in the time people were out of power relative to 2023. And even compared to last year, which again was a really strong year. We're down another 65% year over year." 

Calka noted a few different areas of focus the utility has completed to improve reliability. 

"When we think about the investments we're putting into the grid, we broadly think of them in four categories ... first is we're adding automation," he said. 

According to Calka, this allows engineers to basically press a button and find out accurately what's wrong and then reroute power as needed without sending a crew. Then comes hardening the grid. 

"We're placing poles with much beefier poles, stronger poles, we're undergrounding in some areas where we're replacing wire to increase its resiliency," he said. 

Additionally, DTE says it is rebuilding where necessary and simply keeping up with tree trimming, which he said accounts for about 50% of all outages. 

"We are trimming 5,000 to 6,000 miles of trees per year," Calka said. 

He also noted there are ways residents can help, too. You can report infrastructure that looks wonky and even take a picture to help crews respond and prepare for an outage. But make sure to never approach a downed line.