When DTE comes to your home or business to do work on our equipment, we are committed to treating it like our own. While our crews work as carefully and safely as possible, there are times when damage does occur – and when this happens, we want to do our best to make it right.
DTE is responsible for damage caused by a DTE vehicle, employee or contractor, including:
- Damage to the property (interior/exterior) caused while working on the job
- Tire tracks on the lawn or landscape
If this type of damage occurs, please file a damage claim with DTE to initiate the damage claims process.
How the damage claims process works
If you believe that DTE caused damage to your property, you should start by submitting an online damage claim form. Please provide documentation including invoices, receipts and photos with your claim.
Once DTE has received this information, our Damage Claims team will investigate your claim which generally takes up to 30 days to resolve if received via online or up to 60 days if received via mail.
DTE will send you an acknowledgement letter upon receipt of your damage claim submission and will contact you with status updates.
Damage that is not eligible for reimbursement
At DTE, we know that dealing with damage or loss is difficult. Before you submit a damage claim, please refer to our FAQ document to better understand eligibility.
If your claim does not meet our eligibility, we recommend you contact your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance company to determine if your loss is covered under your policy.
Here are some examples of damage/loss that DTE does not cover:
- Damages or losses resulting from storms or weather-related conditions.
- Loss or damages including hotel/lodging, food loss, damaged appliances due to voltage surges, loss of wages/revenue or tree trim debris removal expenses.
- Damages or losses due to equipment failure beyond our reasonable control.
- Damages or losses caused by a third party or animal interference.
- To learn more about DTE’s damage claims process, please visit our website at Damages & Reliability Credits | DTE Energy.
To learn more about DTE’s damage claims process, please visit our website at Damages & Reliability Credits | DTE Energy.
Damage Prevention Tips
While not all damage is preventable, there are some things you can do to prevent potential power surges during a storm or outage event. Ensuring that your electrical system is properly grounded is very important. This is why the National Electrical Code (NEC) and local building codes require that you have one or more ground rods on your property. If you have concerns about your business or home grounding, contact a licensed electrical contractor. You can also click here to learn more about ground rods.
You can also install surge protectors. These devices are an easy and cost-effective way to protect your electronic devices. While they are less effective than a properly installed and maintained grounding system, they can be helpful in preventing damage to items like televisions and computers.
Reliability Credit Process
If you experience a power outage for an extended period of time, you may be eligible for a reliability credit.
DTE provides these credits if our investigation determines you have experienced the following:
Extended outage:
- A power outage* of more than 16 hours due to an event that results in an interruption affecting 1% or less of DTE’s electric customers.
- A power outage* of more than 48 hours due to an event that results in an interruption affecting greater than 1% but less than 10% of DTE’s electric customers.
- A power outage* of more than 96 hours under catastrophic conditions. Catastrophic conditions are defined as an event that results in an official state of emergency or an event that results in an interruption of 10% or more of DTE’s electric customers.
Once your outage qualifies, you will receive an additional credit amount for every 24 hours the outage continues.
*A power outage consists of full or partial loss of service for longer than five minutes.
Frequent Outage:
- Six power outages* during a 12-month period. Once a credit has been applied, the count of outages resets to zero.
*A power outage consists of full or partial loss of service for longer than five minutes.
Your bill credit eligibility status will be determined automatically, and you will not need to submit a request.
If eligible, a credit will be posted to your account within 1-2 billing cycles or up to 90 days following your outage. For paper bills, refer to the first page of the bill under the “Summary of Charges” section, or for electronic bills refer to the “Bill Summary” section.
Please visit the Damages & Reliability Credits | DTE Energy website for more information.