Trees damaging electric equipment are responsible for 50% of the time that our customers spend without power. DTE invests millions of dollars each year to trim back these trees. While we respond to trees that have fallen and caused outages, we also have a robust, proactive tree trimming program that can help avoid outages for our customers.
The crew pictured below performed maintenance on a circuit located at the intersection of Bird Road and Newport Road in Ann Arbor. Following proactive tree trimming, the area is scheduled for regular five-year maintenance trimming to ensure that the trimmed trees are kept away from our wires.
Tree trimming is a part of our four-point plan to increase electric reliability for our customers. This plan also includes updating existing infrastructure, rebuilding older sections of the grid, and implementing smart grid technology. Ann Arbor has some of the oldest infrastructure in our grid and crews are working hard to update this equipment to reduce outages and provide more reliable energy for residents.
Despite the cold temperatures, tree trimming will continue through the winter months and into 2024. You can find where tree trimming work is planned for the remainder of the year by checking our electric reliability improvements map. You can also stay up to date by checking our Ann Arbor community page.