Severe storms and scorching heat knocked out power to more than 365,000 Michiganders on Tuesday, leaving some to ponder in the dark how the state’s feeble grid will handle millions of electric vehicles.

“This was the kind of instability we see once or twice a year,” Dave Kook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the Detroit Free Press. “And it’s here now.”

Michigan weather on Tuesday produced heat that felt like 100 degrees as part of an unusual pattern that also came with warnings of high winds and potential for hail. By nightfall, 143,000 Consumers Energy and 224,000 DTE Energy customers were without power, a reality that forced grocery stores to close, churches and other groups to cancel services, and drivers to navigate without working traffic lights.

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Associated weather advisories convinced several schools to close or dismiss students early, though many fled to libraries or other public spaces because the lack of power left their homes without air conditioning, according to the Free Press.

It’s a routine that has become familiar for many in the Great Lakes State, which has some of the most expensive but least reliable electrical service in the nation.

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

“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.”

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

Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan, pointed Bridge to a “lack of focus” from energy companies on basics like trimming trees, arguing “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.”

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.

The MPSC is now considering another rate increase request from DTE – filed just four months after the commission approved a $368 million 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 pending rate hike request “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.

It’s also central to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s climate goals, which include a push to reach 2 million registered electric vehicles by 2030, while simultaneously shifting the state’s entire fleet of nearly 15,000 vehicles to electric by 2040.

The significantly increased demand on the electrical grid will play out as DTE and Consumers work to comply with the Whitmer administration’s mandate to shift to 100% “clean sources” of energy, such as less reliable wind and solar, by 2040.

While Michigan has registered less than 3% of Whitmer’s EV goal, if the governor is successful at putting 2 million EVs on Michigan roadways experts predict it would double electricity demand on an already feeble electrical grid.

“Even if you carpeted the state with wind turbines and solar panels, you’re not going to generate enough electricity – especially when you require everybody to driven an electric vehicle,” Jonathan Lesser, a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics, told Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The changes in Michigan, along with a federal rules that will require about 67% of new car sales to be electric, will pose a serious problem for the electrical grid, car dealers, and folks who can’t afford EVs.

“Dealers will be forced to buy cars that they can’t sell,” said Lesser, who has studied energy policy for 35 years. “And they won’t be allotted cars that they want to sell that customers want to buy.”

“Where are you going to get all the electricity? It will not come from wind and solar,” he said. “That’s simply impossible.”

Others seem to agree.

“There is a broad and growing consensus that transitioning to renewable energy is becoming more and more dangerous,” said Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “At the recent CERAWeek meeting in Houston, former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz recognized the growing problem with energy supplies as well. Moniz noted that the energy needs to power AI and data centers would leave utilities scrambling for energy and relying on natural gas, nuclear, and coal.”

The problem was also highlighted in a 2024 report from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation that found the addition electrical demand from EVs would result in an “enormous strain on the aging power grid.”