Renewable, Reliable, Affordable Electricity for Ann Arbor

“In less than 8 months, we have had at least three power outages, one of which extended for more than 2 days, leading to massive food/medicine spoilage. The most recent one is ongoing as I type this (been more than three hours since it’s out), and this comes amidst the plunging temperatures, and with no update. My partner is a professor at Michigan, and was in the middle of his student’s office hours when our internet crashed. Our car is stuck in the garage, as the garage door is electricity-operated. And we have our two pets with us, and we are very concerned about how we will get through this night if this doesn’t come through. How is this permissible? How can they get away with this every single time is beyond me? Between the two of us, we have lived in PA, NY, WI – and nowhere have we faced such frequent outages. And this when we pay roughly $240 per month for electricity and gas for a 2-bed residence. This is plain indefensible. My partner grew up in Calcutta (India), and such outages have become a thing of the past there as well. And to have this happen here, despite the exorbitant costs DTE charges is outrageous.”

Dylan, Feb 24, 2023

“I was just about to put a dish I had prepared in the oven when power went out Wed evening. I quickly put it in the refrigerator hoping it would stay good until I could get it into an oven. After Wed night, with my child and I having trouble sleeping due to cold and neighbor’s loud generator, I tried in vain to find a hotel room. The closest available was Ohio. We spent another night in a 50F house. Fri was able to get a hotel room at an inflated price. Power was restored Fri night while we were at the over priced hotel. Now I have to throw out most of the food in my refrigerator. I’m a widow on limited income, so the hotel and food severely cut into my budget. In addition it was upsetting and stressful for my kid because Dad wasn’t here to “keep us safe.”. I know we’re more fortunate than some. However, since moving to our house in 2016, there have been more power outages than I can count. Many of these outages are random and not related to any clear cause.”

Linda, Feb 25, 2023

“70 hours of no power…and counting. After two nights with temps inside our house in the forties we left town and travelled to stay with family. We were lucky to be able to do so. I am disappointed with DTE and their lack of preventive investment in the A2 grid. Their profit-first stance is to blame and partially resulted in my family’s physical discomfort, the setback of missing a day of work for me and two days (and counting) of school for my daughter, the expense of losing a fridge full of food and having to put my visiting mother up in a hotel (and paying a premium rate to do so), as well as the life disruption of packing up our dogs and our things and traveling unexpectedly out of town.”

Andy, Feb 25, 2023

“So far we’ve been without power for 48 hours and the rough estimate to get it back is another 48 hours. While some food could be moved from the fridge to outside, that doesn’t work for the insulin, which has spoiled (it cannot be frozen and it was in the 20’s outside today).
Without power, we also don’t have running water (we have a well and the pump has to run). I missed work yesterday and my son’s school was closed today due to power outages.”

Jessica, Feb, 24, 2023

“We have been without power since Wednesday night. When I checked DTE’s website for an update on when services would be fixed, they said today. It said the same thing yesterday. This happens at least once a year now, it’s absolutely ridiculous. All the food I just bought a couple of days ago is now spoiled. Water still works thankfully but the fan in the bathroom doesn’t work, so the walls are slicked wet. We already have a problem with mold and god knows it’ll grow if the power isn’t restored until Sunday.”

Noah, Feb 24, 2023