Yesterday, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) announced a system to incentivize electrical service reliability improvements from





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*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:*
February 28, 2025




*Media Contact:*
Danny Wimmer <[email protected]>






AG Nessel Statement on MPSC Ordering Financial Penalty & Incentive System to Improve Utility Reliability

*LANSING* – Yesterday, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) announced a system to incentivize electrical service reliability improvements from the State’s two largest utility corporations, DTE and Consumers Energy, and to penalize them for failing to meet reliability improvement metrics. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has advocated for the MPSC to establish such metrics and penalties for years in public filings to hold Consumers Energy and DTE accountable to the people of this state for their substandard electrical service reliability. The performance metrics adopted by the MPSC are very similar to those the Attorney General had proposed. 

In response, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released the following statement: 

“After years of fighting to hold DTE and Consumers Energy accountable to their customers when they fail to deliver reliably, or make meaningful improvements, I am grateful the MPSC has largely adopted my department’s proposals to tether electric reliability to the utilities’ corporate interest— profits. These badly needed financial penalties will help to defend the interests of Michigan utility ratepayers, in a language we hope now the executives and shareholders will prioritize.  

“While we’re proud to have won these long-sought penalties attached to basic metrics and standards of service, there is still work to be done to force meaningful improvements and responsibility from Consumers Energy and DTE. Obviously, the penalties as ordered are based on metrics that must be applied accurately and measured honestly, and ensuring this will require continued advocacy from the people, and the specific metrics assessed may need to be adapted in the future in order to remain a meaningful incentive to improvement. Although a great first step, these incentives and penalties don’t take effect until 2026 and no penalties are assessed until 2027, and the MPSC won’t be implementing all of the protections for which we’ve advocated over the years. I will continue to push for added energy consumer protections and to hold DTE and Consumers to a high degree of accountability, even when seemingly no other elected leaders will, because Michigan ratepayers deserve the kind of top-tier reliability for which they have been paying but not receiving. 

“This is a great step forward in our work to demand both reliability and accountability of our corporate utilities DTE and Consumers. We look forward to the years ahead when these penalties and incentives will be enforced, and to strengthening even further the State’s mechanisms for compelling customer-based improvements from these companies.” 

The MPSC ordered DTE and Consumers Energy each to file individual proposed financial mechanisms to implement the penalties and incentives in new, unique dockets before the commission by April 15, 2025, and set an October 2027 date to commence the first standalone proceedings to review the for-profit utility corporations’ performance relative to the new reliability metrics.  

Consumers Energy sells electricity to approximately 1.9 million customers throughout Michigan and natural gas to 1.8 million customers across the state. DTE sells natural gas to 1.3 million customers across the state and electricity to approximately 2.2 million customers in Southeast Michigan.

 

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