Michigan Public Service Commission Approves DTE Energy’s Rate Increase For Reliability Roadmap

The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has approved a rate increase for DTE Energy customers, supporting its roadmap to improved reliability, a plan to accelerate system upgrades to ensure reliability for customers by more than 60 percent by over the next five years. 

A DTE electric residential customer using 500 kWh will experience an increase of approximately $0.09 per day, or $2.56 per month in rates, keeping bill increases below the rate of inflation. 

The calculation includes a reduction in fuel costs (known as power supply cost recovery) of $300 million in 2024 to offset customer bill increases while allowing investments to improve electric reliability.

DTE has invested more than $5 billion in its electric grid over the past five years, while the current ruling will help support the company’s plan to invest an additional $9 billion over the next five years to improve reliability. 

The MPSC ruling will support DTE’s four-point plan to reduce the frequency and duration of power outages, including:

• Updating existing infrastructure: Strategic investments in poles, wires, substations, transformers and upgrading the oldest circuits on the system to improve reliability.
• Rebuilding significant portions of the grid: Rebuilding older sections of the grid allows DTE to both increase safety and significantly increase reliability. During rebuilding, overhead equipment can be relocated underground and it increases capacity to support ever expanding electrification.
• Transitioning to a smart grid: With DTE’s Electric Systems Operations Center and recent launch of a grid management system, the company has laid the foundation of investing in smart grid technology. This technology will help DTE to quickly deploy crews to damaged areas and, in some cases, isolate the outage so power can be rerouted for customers while repairs are being made.
• Tree-trimming to improve reliability: DTE trimmed more than 25,000 miles of trees over the last five years and will trim 5,000 miles more in 2023. By the end of 2025, the company will have trimmed every mile of its grid. Tree trimming will continue on a five-year cycle to ensure that DTE continues to keep trees away from its equipment.

The ruling is part of the utility rate-making process overseen by the MPSC and the culmination of a 10-month process led by the Commission.

The average DTE electric residential customer bill is anticipated to increase about 1.2% per year from May 2020, below the Consumer Price Index average annual increase of 5.5% and below Great Lakes and National averages, with the MPSC order.