After pressure from the Governor and Attorney General, utility providers are reaching out to customers to let them know that they are working on preventing lengthy power outages due to storms.
Weather-related electricity outages have been common recently and the length of the outages has been deemed unacceptable by government officials.
DTE contacted customers last week to let them know that the electricity provider is making some changes to try to get the grid under control. Trees are a big part of the problem, so tree trimming is at the forefront of the effort right now.
In the emailed letter to customers, Jerry Norcia, President and Chief Executive Officer of DTE Energy, said, “As we look at our data from this past nine weeks, we can see that trees are responsible for nearly all the time many of you have spent without power during the extreme weather events of this summer. Our electric service area experienced five tornadoes and eight storms with tropical force wind gusts of 39 to 74 miles per hour.”
DTE is spending $70 million over the next year to increase tree trimming projects and increase its tree trimming workforce by 30%.
Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland
