State probes July power failures

The Michigan Public Service Commission on July 16 said it will investigate why DTE Energy customers experienced up to five days with no electricity after a July 3 storm.

Households and organizations that depend on Consumers Energy also faced delayed restoration times.

“Michigan utility customers deserve reliable service, prompt restoration after storm events, and accurate information on how long outages will last when they do happen,” said Dan Scripps, MPSC chair, in a press release.

“Getting the power back on quickly is especially critical when customers are facing extreme weather events, which are becoming increasingly common,” Scripps added.

Before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Scripps to the regulatory agency, he led the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, advocating for expanded renewable energy and clean-energy policies.

Scripps also advocated for a law that strips local governments of their zoning authority to determine if and how much land is allocated to solar and wind projects.

The state regulatory agency has paved the way for utilities to transition to wind and solar sources through granting billions in rate hike approvals for DTE and Consumers Energy over the past five years.

“We appreciate the MPSC’s work to help Michigan’s energy providers better serve customers after the July 4 weekend storm,” Katie Carey, director of media relations at Consumers Energy, wrote in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The company understands the frustration customers felt going through a holiday weekend without power because of several rounds of storms, Carey said.

Carey added that the company’s restoration team secured resources to prepare for the July 3 storm and mobilized nearly 500 crews to help communities restore power.

“We look forward to providing all requested information to support the investigation while monitoring and preparing for whatever severe weather might come our way,” Carey said.

DTE did not respond to a request for comment.

Michigan’s clean energy law will, according to some experts, exacerbate power outages and make energy bills more expensive.

The law, which Whitmer signed in 2023, requires utility companies to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2040.

Wind and solar energy sources, often touted as renewable or clean energy, are less reliable than natural gas, some analysts say.

”For years, monopoly utilities have poured billions into net-zero mandates while neglecting the basics — maintaining and hardening the grid,” said Jason Hayes, senior research fellow for environmental policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

The predictable result, he added, is a fragile system that routinely fails in heat, storms, and high winds, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

If regional utilities and regulators had prioritized tree trimming, replacing or burying aging distribution lines, and strengthening infrastructure, these outages would be rare, he said.

“Reliability and affordability should come first for any utility,” Hayes said. “Instead, Michigan’s utilities have prioritized costly, unreliable ‘green energy’ agendas.”

The Citizens Utility Board of Michigan published a 2025 report that concluded in part:

“Overall, Michigan utilities’ reliability performance in 2023 was worse than in 2022, among the worst in the nation and a continuation of a long-standing problem. The five-year averages for Michigan utility reliability performance metrics continue to be among the worst in the country and the worst of any Great Lakes state.”

A report by the Progressive Policy Institute, a center-left organization, wrote that Michigan’s clean energy mandate is causing problems for energy reliability.

“Michigan has real climate progress to show for the last two decades, but holding onto mandates the grid cannot support is a recipe for blackouts, higher bills, and job losses,” wrote Neel Brown, a co-author of a report put out by the institute.

“The state has a legislative off-ramp available, and pragmatic policymakers should use it,” he added.

A spokesperson for state regulators called on utilities to improve their record. “The MPSC recognizes that there is still work to be done to improve the reliability of Michigan’s power grid, and the state’s utilities have to do better at reducing how often outages happen and how quickly service is restored,” Matt Helms, public information officer at the MPSC, wrote in an email to CapCon.

The commission is launching an investigation to focus on where the utility companies fell short after the early July storm, he said.

Energy companies have reduced the average number of annual outage minutes by nearly an hour between 2019 and 2025, Helms wrote. He said this improvement exceeds that seen in other states.

The commission remains committed to implementing the 2023 energy law, according to Helms.