Michigan residents are suffering more and longer power outages than all but two states, despite paying 11% more for their monthly bill than the U.S. average, according to a new analysis.

Data from the research and communications nonprofit Climate Central analyzed by Bridge Michigan shows only Texas and California – the top two states for population – have recorded more major power outages impacting 50,000-plus customers than Michigan.

That puts Michigan ahead of all Great Lakes States and other states routinely impacted by hurricanes, such as Louisiana and Florida.

“The level of performance is unacceptable,” Dan Scripps, a Gretchen Whitmer appointee and chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission that oversees utilities, told Bridge. “That’s maybe the thing we can all agree on – and trying to get to a better place.”

The commission last year fielded 2,700 outage complaints, or four times the annual average between 2014 and 2020.

Officials at Consumers Energy and DTE highlighted hundreds of millions of dollars spent on trimming trees, replacing poles and wires, and other work in recent years to reduce outages, yet those outages have continued to increase each of the last three years.

Greg Salisbury, Consumers’ vice president of electric distribution and engineering, blamed the problem in part on high wind and weather, pointing to data that shows an increase in damaging high winds between 2016 and 2021.

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Richard Rood, professor of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan, told Bridge that may be the case, but noted states including Texas, Louisiana and Florida have faced severe hurricanes. Other neighboring states also have much fewer outages, suggesting other factors at play.

“It’s really hard to say Michigan is seeing more severe weather than anywhere in the Midwest,” he said.

Others argue the real issue has been a “lack of focus” on basics like trimming trees.

“DTE and Consumers Energy are trying to play catchup now and speeding up the cycles with which they trim trees, but the damage to their performance has been done,” Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, said in a statement to Bridge.

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Michigan customers are now paying extra to improve reliability with rate increases approved by the MPSC for both DTE and Consumers since December.

Those increases build on a residential bill that already 17% higher than Great Lakes States on average at $79.55 for 500 kilowatt hours per month. The U.S. average of $82.40 is 11% lower than Michigan’s rate.

But there’s more to come.

The MPSC is considering another rate increase from DTE – filed just four months after the commission approved a $368 million rate hike in December – to tap its 2.3 million customers for another $456 million.

If approved, the hike would result in an increase in annual rates by more than $800 million in a 13 month period, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.

The most recent ask “is incredibly important for us to continue to do the work we need to do to build a grid of the future, and continue to improve reliability in the state,” DTE President Matt Paul told the Detroit Free Press in March.

“We have a vast system,” he said. “It’s aging, and the weather is getting worse and we have a lot of work to do to upgrade it.”

In addition to efforts to improve reliability, the funding would also help support “clean energy” projects that align with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate goals.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said the current trajectory of rate increases pushes the state “toward unsustainable electric bills.”

Meanwhile, they’re also pushing DTE and Consumers toward bigger profits.

“Consumers had a net income of $876 million in 2023, for a profit margin of nearly 12%, while DTE had net income of $1.4 billion in 2023 for a profit margin of 11%,” Bridge reports. “Both utilities increased profit margins for 2023.”