Michigan utility Consumers Energy claims that the smart grid technology it incorporated into its electric grid prevented outages for more than 72,000 customers in 2024. Without automatic transfer reclosers (ATRs), the utility projects that its customers could have lost power for a total of over 350,000 hours. ATRs detect a power outage remotely and automatically limit the extent of a power outage.
Adding to the 550 ATRs currently in use throughout the state, Consumers Energy announced in May 2024 that it would be investing nearly $24 million to install more than 100 additional units and 3,000 line sensors, with plans for more to come on the way to its goals of ensuring no more than 100,000 customers lose power “even after the worst storms” and always restoring power in 24 hours or less.
Smart technology plays a critical role in the company’s Reliability Roadmap, which includes a plan for a smarter and stronger electric grid. Other facets of the plan include investments in forestry work and infrastructure upgrades, such as installing iron poles capable of withstanding harsh Michigan weather and burying overhead power lines. Additional efforts to reach their goals include inspecting a “record” number of low-voltage electric lines, with company ultimately inspecting 25,800 miles of overhead lines by the end of 2024.
This comes after Consumers Energy agreed to pay a $1 million fine in response to complaints of faulty meters and delays in electric and gas service earlier in 2024. An audit indicates that the utility is lagging behind others in its restoration times.
An audit of DTE Electric Co. and Consumers Energy released by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) in September 2024 examined operations of the state’s two largest electric utilities in an attempt to determine the root causes of low reliability and slow service restoration times.
In addition, Consumers’ 2022 and 2023 CAIDI metrics both including and excluding major event delays (MEDs) were in the 4th quartile, indicating the Michigan utility was worse than average among other utilities. Consumers’ 2022 and 2023 SAIDI metrics also placed them in the 4th quartile including MEDs and in the third quartile excluding MEDs.
In 2023, more than 10% of Consumers’ customers experienced four or more interruptions and more than 25% of its customers experienced interruptions of eight hours or more.
The audit also revealed that, due to mergers with legacy utilities over the years, Consumers operates a high number of different low distribution voltages, requiring them to use isolating transformers to connect circuits with different voltages. Various nonstandard substation and circuit assets mean the utility must maintain mobile substations and additional inventory beyond that typically needed for standard voltage substations and circuits.
“Consumers Energy is building a stronger grid with our Reliability Roadmap, and it’s also a smarter one that will keep more people from losing power in the first place,” said Greg Salisbury, Consumers Energy’s vice president of electric distribution engineering. “The results that we’re seeing from our ATRs and other technological tools show us that we’re on the right path to better serving our friends and neighbors 24/7/365.”
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Lori Lovely is an award-winning writer and editor in central Indiana. She writes on technical topics, heavy equipment, automotive, motorsports, energy, water and wastewater, animals, real estate, home improvement, gardening and more. Reach her at: [email protected]