DTE and Consumers Energy are broken and dangerous. Is it time for publicly owned utilities?
Even for a state accustomed to navigating heavy snow and frigid winters, the polar vortex that pushed over Michigan in late January jarred the region. Temperatures in metro Detroit plunged to record lows of -26 while a dangerous wind chill hit -43 degrees in some spots, forcing school and workplace closures while confining residents to their homes.
But as the region tried to stay warm, Consumers Energy blasted out a startling warning to Michiganders' cell phones on Wednesday, Jan. 30. "Emergency alert," the text read. "Due to extreme temps Consumers asks everyone to lower their heat to 65 or less through Fri." A fire at a compressor plant deeply stressed its system, and the company didn't have the infrastructure in place to handle an emergency in extreme weather.
Consumers placed its customers between a rock and a hard place: turn down the heat during the frigid weather — or risk a system collapse that would leave southeast Michigan without natural gas to keep people warm.
Enough people cooperated that a crash was avoided, and the company said customers could turn their thermostats up on midnight on Friday. But months later, the utilities did fail. In July, powerful thunderstorms downed the region's electric service, this time as heat peaked at 96 degrees. More than 800,000 customers lost electricity, and tens of thousands would be without power for up to a week. In another 45 days, more storms pummeled DTE Energy's and Consumers' lines — 100,000 lost power, and thousands sat in the dark for days.
Read more: https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/dte-and-consumers-energy-are-broken-and-dangerous-is-it-time-for-publicly-owned-utilities/Content?oid=23102753
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Perhaps even more ominous is the fact that most electric and gas meters have been replaced by 'Smart Meters.'
So eventually they won't have to ask you to adjust your thermostat. They can control it for you. Much like the internet service providers can throttle down speed...
