DTE CEO says the company plans to have all power outages restored by Tuesday night

DTE, which provides electricity to most of Metro Detroit, plans to restore all power outages that remain from Friday night's windstorm by Tuesday night.

It's been an ordeal for thousands in Southeast Michigan, where at one time about 400,000 customers were without power. About 22,728 DTE customers still had no electricity at 2:30 p.m Tuesday. 

Consumers Energy provides electricity for parts of Monroe and Lenawee counties, and those areas were not hit as hard by the windstorm.

Many of the power outages occurred between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to the DTE outage map, and frustration was mounting as restoration estimate times changed repeatedly. Local leaders and state representatives held a news conference on Monday night, calling out DTE for the response to the storm and the lingering power outage numbers. 

DTE, for its part, gave an update during a news conference on Tuesday from its Electric System Operations Center in Detroit, echoing statements on its website that forecast full restorations by later in the day. 

Joi Harris, DTE's president and chief executive officer, who gave that forecast, said the circumstances leading up to the widespread power outages were a "highly unique event." 

Southeast Michigan had just experienced a few days of a heat wave, a holiday weekend was approaching, and then this windstorm evolved with about 90 minutes' notice to the utility that there could be property damage. Under normal circumstances, she said, the electric company can get crews on standby or on call, but on Friday, there wasn't much time to respond.

Furthermore, she said, crews that DTE could normally call on for mutual aid from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were coping with similar disruptions. With that scenario, the crews that assisted DTE came from Canada and 12 other states. A farther distance to drive utility trucks resulted in a lag time for getting crews on site in Metro Detroit, Harris said.

"We've had to secure crews from as far as Texas, and it takes those crews a couple of days to get to us," Harris said.

But by Tuesday afternoon, she said those crews were working fast. That's why she said restorations were well underway.

"I will tell you the damage is extensive. In some cases, we are rebuilding the circuits one customer at a time," Harris said, adding that this set of circumstances will be part of the utility company's training and planning for weather emergencies.

In 2024, the results of an audit of both DTE and Consumers' Energy revealed that trees falling onto power lines are among the leading causes of power outages. Harris says a third of their system is already underground.

Harris says that a tree-trimming effort the company has been working on did not help much, as in many cases on Friday, large trees were pushed down at the roots.

What did help quite a bit, she said, were partnerships with local community agencies that could identify customers who were most vulnerable to loss of electricity - and step up to help meet the need. For example, Harris said efforts were made to get generators to some of those people. DTE also set up pop-up distribution sites in areas to distribute bottled water and flashlights, and in some cases, free meals.

Monday was the first regular business day after the holiday weekend, and with that, there were a number of government office closings and cancellations in areas still affected by power outages. 

Here is what you need to know for Tuesday. 

Power outages by county 

The PowerOutage.com website listed the following outages in Southeast Michigan on a county-by-county basis as of 6:25 a.m. Tuesday.  

• Wayne County – 21,035. 
• Monroe County – 3,969.
• Oakland County – 3,637. 
• Macomb County – 2,238. 
• Washtenaw County – 1,088. 

Monroe County was the hardest hit on a percentage basis from the windstorm, according to the PowerOutage website. Monroe County still had over 5% of area residents without power Tuesday morning. 

Bill credits/reimbursement 

Once a power outage reaches a certain duration – in this case, 96 hours or four full days – Michigan law calls for automatic bill credits. The credit is automatically applied to a bill within 90 days of the event. The credit is $42 per day the outage continues. 

For those who lost power at 6 p.m. Friday, the 96-hour point begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday. 

DTE acknowledged that the credit may not cover everything customers had to pay out of pocket. 

"We know that $42 doesn't cut it," Harris said in terms of expenses such as lost food or medication, meals out and generator fuel.

But that is why community partners who can assist are so important, she added.

"I want to say we're very sorry that our customers experience those types of hardships. Know the difficulty that it represents, particularly for vulnerable customers," Harris said.

Some say that's not good enough. Lawmakers like Democratic state Rep. Dylan Wegela have promised to reintroduce legislation to create a public power entity for Michigan.

In a statement, Wegela said in part, "A public utility wouldn't spend money influencing elections or wasting money on public relations campaigns. Our utilities' sole focus should be on creating the most affordable and efficient energy system. Not maximizing profits."

Campground reservations

Sterling State Park in Monroe County is among the areas that lost power due to the storms. The park staff said that campground reservations affected by the power outage will automatically see a fee adjustment/refund for those days.

Cancellations and closings 

The following announcements are related to the lingering power outages:

Berlin Township government offices in Monroe County will be closed Tuesday.

Brownstown Township government offices in Wayne County will be closed Tuesday.

Monroe Public School has canceled summer school classes for Tuesday. 

Ypsilanti Community Schools has canceled the Grizzly Learning Camp for Tuesday.