Reliability improvement work continues in Midtown, Brush Park and surrounding Detroit neighborhoods
The city of Detroit is continuing its great resurgence with new businesses and thousands of residents moving to the area each year. DTE Energy is supporting that growth by ensuring customers have reliable energy now and into the future. That’s why we’re investing more than $80 million into the southern Midtown, Brush Park, Douglas and Brewster Homes neighborhoods of Detroit. The area includes some of the oldest existing and operating DTE Energy infrastructure. Some of it is nearly 100 years old and ready for replacement. This new investment will improve electric services for thousands in the area.
The work, which began in 2019, includes:
- Modernizing the underground distribution system. This system delivers power to homes and businesses.
- Upgrading more than 25 miles of cables, conduit and electrical equipment.
- Removing obsolete and aging equipment, along with decommissioning a 90-year-old substation.
The investment will make the grid system safer, more modern and resilient. It also will increase reliability and reduce the number of outages customers experience.
Perhaps the most exciting result of the project will be the increased grid capacity. By switching from the hundred-year-old distribution system to a more modern one, we will be able to better support future growth in the city. The added capacity will be necessary to power new developments. It also is needed to support more people moving into the city and working from home. Finally, the conversion will prepare the grid for customers’ move toward cleaner energy solutions and a more electrified future. The grid will now have the capacity to support the rapid rise expected in electric vehicle charging stations in Detroit homes and businesses.
Our progress
Since the project began, our crews have accomplished the following:
- Installed new conduit, cables and electrical equipment that will deliver power to homes and businesses.
- Began to energize and test the new circuits and equipment, preparing to convert to the new network in 2023.
Currently, about 50% of the work is complete.
What’s next?
We will continue our reliability improvement work in the Midtown, Brush Park, Douglas and Brewster Homes neighborhoods of Detroit. Our crew is on track to finish construction, convert all customers to the new system and decommission aging infrastructure in the area by the end of 2025.
To safely complete the work, short, planned outages and road closures will be required. This includes limited access to alleyways, crosswalks and sidewalks. We will continue to notify residents and businesses affected by construction. Learn more about reliability work happening in your community at empoweringmichigan.com/reliability-improvements.
