DTE is nearly finished rebuilding infrastructure that powers Superior Township and northeast Ann Arbor. Rebuilding work like this will help us reach our commitment to improving reliability by 30% and cutting outage times in half by 2029.
Since 2023, DTE crews have been working to rebuild the electrical equipment that delivers power to this area of Washtenaw County. Once the work is completed, customers served by the upgraded substation and equipment will experience an expected 90% improvement in reliability.
This multi-year, $40 million investment, includes:
- Installing smart grid devices. This technology allows the equipment in your neighborhood to seamlessly communicate with our system operations center: de-energizing lines that have fallen to keep you safe, identifying for our crews exactly where the damage is so they can begin restoration faster and rerouting power so that your lights stay on while our crews make repairs.
- Constructing a new electric substation that will deliver more power to Superior Township and northeast Ann Arbor.
- Rebuilding 20 miles of overhead equipment with stronger, more modern equipment.
- Installing several miles of new underground conduit and cable.
- Installing new, more durable poles to better withstand extreme weather.
- Trimming or removing trees growing close to power lines. Fallen trees and branches account for half the time our customers are without power — trimming helps prevent tree-related outages.
Project benefits
- Decreased outages and outage times
- Improved safety
- Greater grid capacity to handle growing power needs in and outside of the city.
- These infrastructure improvements will help drive toward Ann Arbor’s aspirational A2Zero goals.
Work progress
Summer 2023 – spring 2024: Crews rebuilt equipment along four miles Plymouth Road in Superior Township. Rebuilding involves replacing the poles, wires and transformers with new, stronger equipment that can better withstand extreme weather. To keep your power on and reliable during construction, we construct the new equipment next to the old and wait until a whole section of the new infrastructure is built before moving your power to the new.
June 2024: Now that the new infrastructure is fully built, we will switch around 300 customers in the area over to the new power delivery system. At this time, those customers will begin to see decreases in the number and length of power outages.
2025: We will begin constructing a new substation and expanding the infrastructure in Superior Township to support future growth. All this work is expected to be completed in 2028.
Rebuilding work like this is just one part of DTE’s plan build the grid of the future: transitioning to a smart grid, upgrading existing infrastructure, rebuilding significant portions of the grid and trimming trees. Learn more about work happening in your community at empoweringmichigan.com/reliability-improvements or visit our power improvements map.