Renewable, Reliable, Responsible Electricity for Ann Arbor

Last night, about 8:30pm, our neighborhood lost power for about 1 hour. It was a sad surprise that send us scrambling for flashlights and blankets to get through the night as the sun was beginning to set. We thought we might be in for an all-nighter, but, thankfully, power did come back on shortly. There was no storm. No wind. No rain. It was a cool, calm, quiet evening. When a neighbor texted to report that they’d found the reason for the outtage on the DTE outtage web site we learned that DTE had shut power off as needed to “upgrade/repair” equipment. 
I am angered that they would not notify customers of these kinds of shutdowns. It is a completely irresponsible and inconsiderate way to run our utilities.

Chai Montgomery

May 25, 2023

The outages are ridiculous – my family has lost multiple fridges of food because of poor service from DTE

Elizabeth Nelson

May 21, 2023

The power was out from Wednesday evening through Monday afternoon. Since we’re on wells out here, no power also means no running water. I ran a generator for heat/refrigeration from Thursday through Monday, I’d say it cost about $30 in gas. The initial restoration estimate took days to come, and it was ultimately off by another day.

Communication from DTE was almost entirely lacking. The initial text from them said something to the effect of “we’re sorry, be safe”. No recommendations for how to be safe. No information about where to go to get warm. During the last multi-day outage we had– in August of 2021– they at least distributed ice and bottled water. But this time, no material assistance. 

Anonymous

March 11, 2023

We had a fairly serious ice storm in late Feb and lost power for 6 days. Then, we got it back for 3 days, at which time we had a very weak snow/ice storm, and then we lost it and internet for 4 and 5 days, respectively. It affected us very much as we both work online and each missed several days of work, affecting our ability to pay for our existence and service our predatory student loan debts. We had to become a burden on our elderly parents. We lost food. Thankfully, the sun was out a lot and it stayed above freezing or our pipes would have frozen. Our electrical system has been shaky since we got power back. It is sad that we can’t even talk to a person at DTE (CEO = $2.8 mill annual compensation), unless, I suspect, if we didn’t pay our bill. What happens to the elderly with no resources?

Anonymous

March 8, 2023