Fallen trees are responsible for nearly 70% of the time DTE Energy customers spend without power. That’s why DTE is stepping up efforts to trim overgrown trees and provide customers with innovative ways to help manage trees around their home. TreeGuard Assurance, one of DTE’s electric programs, is one of those new ways.
TreeGuard helps customers protect themselves against costly tree clean up and tree trimming expenses if they experience an outage relating to their overhead service line. If there is an outage at the home the claim process is easy. Customers follow a simple claim process by contacting DTE, who will:
- Safely cut and remove all tree debris associated with the service line outage
- Help prevent future outages by trimming back tree interference within a five-foot radius of the service line
- Repair any damage to the weatherhead and riser above your meter associated with the outage
Understanding who is responsible for the equipment that makes up the service line and the meter can help explain how TreeGuard positively impacts customers. For customers who live in homes with an overhead service line, they are responsible for maintaining the weatherhead, riser and meter can attached to their house. Trees, and tree trimming, are also the customer’s responsibility to manage. DTE takes care of the service line itself, the meter and the service entrance cable. To save customers additional time and money, TreeGuard expanded its services this year to include weatherhead and riser repair if a customer loses service and a claim is filed. This responsibility used to fall to the customer.
“Enrolling in TreeGuard is a simple and easy solution to fix what can be a costly and time-consuming problem for customers,” said Lisa Rice, TreeGuard Assurance program manager. “The program is perfect for new homeowners, elderly family members or anyone who doesn’t want to deal with the headaches of cleaning up a fallen tree or tree limbs.”
High winds and lightning are the number one reason trees fall and knock down power lines, leaving customers in the dark. With high storm months around the corner, customers can enroll in TreeGuard and earn peace of mind for only $9.99 a month. Enroll today online or by calling 844.269.5565.