(The Center Square) – Michigan ranks one of the most-expensive states in the nation for electricity costs, as the electrical grid in the state also struggles with frequent and prolonged outages.
Residents in the Great Lakes State pay the 11th highest retail price for electricity in the country. This is according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which looked at the average retail price of electricity for the residential sector. In Michigan, it was 20 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Other studies have flagged that, though Michigan consumers are paying more than many Americans for electricity, the state has also consistently dealt with a less reliable power grid.
One of those is a 2024 report from nonprofit research and communications group Climate Central, which found that Michigan experienced the second-highest number of weather-related power outages in any state from 2000-2023. Only Texas ranked higher than Michigan’s 157 major power outages with 210.
Restoration time is also a problem for Michigan.
According to the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan’s 2024 Utility Performance Report, Michigan is the 9th-worst state for restoration time following an outage. It also greatly underperforms compared to neighboring states.
“Among its neighbors, Michigan has the highest number of outage minutes per customer, driven largely by the duration of outages rather than their frequency,” CUB reported. “In other words, while Michigan does show a high vulnerability to outages, its poor performance is driven by Michigan utilities being slow to act to restore service.”
It also found that Michigan utilities’ average time for restoring power after an outage was 513 minutes, compared to the national average of 335 minutes.
“Michigan’s performance on most reliability measures places it among the worst performing states,” the CUB report found.
A 2023 Report Card for Michigan’s Infrastructure from the Michigan section of the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Michigan’s energy system a D, which was the lowest score it gave on the report.
CUB said it is up to companies to work to improve this system.
“The largest improvements to Michigan’s statewide trends would involve improvements to the practices of the state’s two largest utilities, DTE and Consumers Energy, which together serve more than 80% of the state’s electric customers,” it stated. “These two companies dominate Michigan’s poor statewide performance on reliability and rank badly among the nation’s investor-owned utilities.”
Matt Johnson, a media relations specialist with Consumers Energy, told The Center Square the company remains committed to providing affordable energy.
“While a customer’s bill is directly tied to usage, Consumers Energy residential customers are still paying below the national average on their bills,” Johnson said. “Consumers Energy continues to invest in needed system upgrades while keeping average bill increases well below the rate of inflation.”
Jason Hayes, director of energy and environmental policy for Michigan’s Mackinac Center, told The Center Square that “electricity choice” would also help solve the high costs for consumers.
“Michigan has high electricity costs, at least partly due to our refusal to stick with electricity choice,” he said.
Electricity choice would allow consumers to have more options for electric services, instead of receiving service from the utility company that services everyone in their community.
“When most Michigan residents and businesses sign up for electricity service the only choice they are legally allowed is between buying electricity from a single, regulated, monopoly utility company or having no electricity at all,” the Mackinac Center reported in its Policy Guide to Energy Choice in Michigan, which argued that more choices would lower costs for consumers.
Elyse Apel is an apprentice reporter with The Center Square, covering Georgia and North Carolina. She is a 2024 graduate of Hillsdale College.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
