ANN ARBOR, MI – DTE Energy has faced quite a bit of criticism for the recent sweeping power outages that have affected hundreds of thousands of people, and that includes many complaints in Ann Arbor about DTE’s new outage card.
It is buggy, inaccurate and has caused confusion after the Feb. 22 ice storm left many residents without power for days, said City Councilman Jen Eyer, D-4th Ward.
“We expect more from DTE when it comes to a winter storm that leaves people freezing in their homes,” she said.
She and City Administrator Milton Dohoney are now arranging a meeting with DTE officials to discuss the concerns.
There were widespread issues with DTE’s new map showing false outage statuses, Eyer said, noting that she had received reports from a number of local residents that DTE had marked their blocks or neighborhoods as restored when they hadn’t was, and the residents had to report failures again.
DTE’s automated text and email notifications to customers also conflicted with the outage status at people’s homes or what the map showed in many cases, Eyer said.
“The level of community confusion stemming from DTE’s communications was just incredible,” she said, noting that many were uncertain as to when power would be restored.
An extension cord runs from a neighbor’s home to Grant Alpert’s home to power his sump pump in Ann Arbor on Wednesday March 1, 2023. Alpert’s service line was damaged by an ice storm in the early hours of Thursday, February 23, and an electrician advised him to turn off the main breaker until the line is repaired.
While DTE announced it would send $35 in credit to customers who were without power for 96 hours, for some it’s still unclear whether they’ll qualify in cases where DTE earlier marked power restored , than she really was, said Eyer.
DTE has not responded to a request from MLive/The Ann Arbor News, although on its website it describes its outage map as newly improved and notes that it allows users to search by address and zoom in to get information about specific locations that clickable are icons to display failure numbers.
DTE released a YouTube video on February 5th explaining how to use the card.
“DTE’s new improved outage map offers an updated user experience and makes it easier to get accurate and timely information right at the touch of a button,” it says. “You’ll notice a simplified look that ensures users get to the information they need quickly.”
By clicking the menu button, users can report outages and broken power lines and check outage status.
By clicking an information icon, users can toggle to view outages by zip code or county.
As of Friday afternoon, March 3, the map showed that 223 DTE customers in Washtenaw County remained without power, accounting for 0.13% of customers. As the map showed, there were still over 2,000 other customers without power in DTE’s remaining service area in southeastern Michigan.
‘Absolutely unacceptable’: Washtenaw County leaders blast DTE Energy, consumer after ice storm
Some residents have taken to social media to criticize the new map, noting that instead of giving users a comprehensive view of outage geographic boundaries, it now shows small icons with outage numbers for general areas. Some speculated that this was intentional to avoid people taking screenshots that more clearly illustrate the extent of outages.
Eyer said she communicated with DTE throughout the outages and shared examples of local residents who were concerned that DTE did not have their outage status accurate.
She urged Nextdoor to tell more people their stories and received 140 responses from residents raising concerns about missing or inaccurate information from DTE, including neighborhoods that were marked as restored despite not yet having power.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this in our community before,” Eyer said of the mass confusion.
“You should be able to look up your address and get good information,” she said. “The really worrying thing is that so many people felt they had to — and they did — have to come back because their entire neighborhood was wrongly marked as solved.”
A fallen branch and downed power line in the Grant Alpert backyard in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Nearly a week after the storm that caused the damage, Alpert says he could not get DTE Energy to do the repair damaged wire.
DTE critics have also raised concerns that in a recent quarterly conference call with shareholders, the for-profit utility outlined plans to cut operating and maintenance costs this year by postponing maintenance, delaying hiring, reducing its contractor workforce and overtime were limited.
This has some proponents of creating a public utility company repeating the call for DTE to be abolished in Ann Arbor.
Is it time for public power in Ann Arbor? Group makes arguments after recent failures
Responding to concerns about cuts, DTE said last week that because the company invested more in maintenance in 2022, the company may defer non-critical maintenance this year and will defer work to 2024.
The cost savings measures are non-recurring and the maintenance deferral does not include critical reliability programs such as tree pruning, according to DTE.
Councilor Dharma Akmon, D-4th Ward, said Thursday she was appalled that some residents were still without power more than a week since the outages.
In a post on Twitter on Friday, Councilor Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, D-3rd Ward, said she had been contacted about an elderly resident on the ninth day without power with another winter storm on the way. She encouraged residents who are still without power to email city officials at [email protected].
“All #a2council members and our mayor want to know if you’re still without power and help you turn it back on,” she wrote.
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