Michigan utilities file grid modernisation plans

Consumers Energy and DTE Energy have filed five year grid modernisation with the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) to improve reliability.

With changing weather patterns and extreme weather events becoming more prevalent – among them in Michigan a doubling of average wind speeds over the past four years – grid reliability and resilience are coming under increasing utility scrutiny.

“Job #1 for us is to keep the lights on regardless of the weather,” says Tonya Berry, senior vice president of transformation and engineering at Consumers Energy, which provides natural gas and/or electricity to approximately two-thirds of the state’s 10 million residents.

The company has set two long-term goals for its grid reliability – that no customer will be without power for more than 24 hours and that no outage will affect more than 100,000 customers.

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Among the steps identified is the now standard and highly effective reliability improvement action of tree trimming to keep lines clear from interference, while infrastructure upgrades planned include accelerating the replacement or rebuild of poles and expanding the undergrounding of power lines.

On the grid modernisation front, the proposal is to enhance the ability for smart meters, sensors and automation devices to work together to help monitor, isolate and automatically respond to interruptions more effectively.

Consumers Energy also highlights its commitment that all communities should experience the benefits of the reliability roadmap and can participate in the clean energy transformation.

For its key target DTE Energy, which serves the majority of the remainder of Michigan’s customers, is targeting a 60% increase in the average reliability over the next five years, which would put it into the top half of the US’s best performing utilities.

The tree trimming programme will cover almost 50,000km, while more than 16,000km of existing infrastructure should be updated in the grid modernisation, with some of the oldest sections of the grid being rebuilt and new substations put in place.

The transition to a smart grid also is intended with full automation with the installation of 10,000 smart devices, allowing for faster identification of damaged areas and rerouting of service for most customers during an outage.

“More reliable. More automated. More resilient. These are our key objectives for the next five years,” says Matt Paul, president and chief operating officer of DTE Electric.

“Last year, our system operated without incident 99.9% of the time, but we still have work to do to create a more resilient power grid that provides customers with the reliability they expect and deserve.”