We understand how difficult it is to be without power — that’s why DTE Energy works year-round to anticipate outage events and improve our electrical system to keep your lights on. But in some cases, outage events arise from situations out of our control. Here are the key causes of outages, as well as what we’re doing to prevent service interruptions from happening in the first place.
Weather
Storms and heavy winds can knock down power lines or damage electrical equipment, but did you know summer storms aren’t the only weather-related outages? Extreme heat also can also disrupt power. When temperatures rise to 90 degrees or more, air conditioning is working overtime to keep many homes cool — consuming more energy and putting added strain on the electrical system that carries power to homes and businesses.
Cold weather conditions can interrupt service as well. Ice can increase the weight of tree branches, causing them to break off and land on power lines or equipment. In fact, just one-half-inch of ice accumulation can add 500 pounds of extra weight onto power lines, causing them to snap.
While we can’t control the weather, we are taking significant steps to limit its impact on your service, by upgrading and replacing electrical infrastructure with stronger materials to be more resilient against the elements.
Trees
Trees are an important and beautiful part of Michigan’s ecosystem. But did you know they also account for 50% of the time customers are without power? Branches and foliage can cause outages when they grow too close to or break and fall into the lines that deliver power to homes and businesses. The best way to prevent these outages is through trimming or removing trees. That’s why we’ve stepped up efforts to trim overgrown trees to keep you safe and the energy grid more reliable.
DTE regularly trims trees within 20 feet of any utility pole. Having trees on your property trimmed will help prevent them from interfering with electric service. For more information about our tree maintenance, go to dteenergy.com/treecare.
Improvements and Maintenance
Building the grid of the future is the best way to help prevent power outages. We’re investing more than $1.3 billion annually in infrastructure upgrades to improve reliability for DTE customers. To safely make those upgrades, it is sometimes necessary to interrupt service. These short outages will prevent the number and length of outages in the future.
Additionally, our team does routine maintenance on electrical equipment to ensure the system that delivers power is working properly and efficiently. During maintenance, there are instances when an unplanned outage is necessary to safely continue work. During these events, we can’t always notify customers in advance, but we do follow-up with an explanation shortly after power is restored.
Equipment malfunctions
Over time, electrical equipment may be weakened by storms and disruptions in the flow of energy (which can be caused by things like short circuits or tree limbs coming in contact with a line), resulting in outages. But like electronics, vehicles and other infrastructure, electrical equipment can malfunction without warning.
Smart meters and smart sensors alert us immediately if there’s an issue on our lines or with your service. Then, we direct DTE emergency response teams to the problem area, so we can restore power faster and minimize the number of customers impacted by any outage. We are working to replace and upgrade aging infrastructure, as well, and to increase our routine maintenance of all DTE electrical equipment.
Interference
Many things can interfere with power lines and cause outages. Mylar balloons, paper lanterns and small animals like squirrels and birds tend to get into power lines, transformers and other electrical equipment, causing them to temporarily malfunction.
We have been working to strengthen the electrical system against interferences like this. Our team also has been educating the public on the risks of releasing floating objects into the sky.
Vehicle accidents
Electrical service can be impacted when a vehicle strikes a utility pole. In addition to the obvious hazards to the driver, passengers and those located nearby the crash, these collisions can severely damage the pole, electrical equipment, power lines and more.
Summary
While there are many reasons the power might go out, you can rest assured our team at DTE is investing in our infrastructure and technology to help ensure you have the power you need, when you need it. To learn more visit empoweringmichigan.com/reliability-improvements.