How to claim a $25 credit on your electric bill if you lost power
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - UPDATE: DTE and the Michigan Attorney General's office now say this weekend qualifies as a catastrophic storm, meaning power must have been out for 120 hours to qualify for this credit.
Almost a million people lost electricity this weekend when a dangerous heat wave and powerful storm rolled through Michigan.
At one point this weekend, 600,000 DTE Energy customers were knocked offline. By Monday morning, that number was down to about 250,000 with a goal of having 90% of customers restored by the end of the day Tuesday and the rest by Wednesday.
Consumers reported 220,000 customers were offline this weekend with about 46,000 still in the dark Monday morning. Consumers Energy expects to have the power restored by the end of the day Tuesday.
Consumers are eligible for a credit under "normal conditions" if the utility fails to restore service within 16 hours after an outage resulting from conditions other than catastrophic conditions. Catastrophic conditions are defined as an event that results in an official state of emergency or an event that results in interruption of 10 percent or more of the utility's customers and the utility fails to restore power within 120 hours.
DTE Energy customers click here to apply for the credit
"The weekend storms in some parts of Michigan have left hundreds of thousands of electric customers with extended interruptions in services and it's important we remind them that they may be entitled to a credit as a result of those interruptions," Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said. "And while we appreciate the utility companies for their around-the-clock work to restore power to their customers, it's important we continue working together to ensure better reliability for our residents."
Consumers Energy customers click here to apply for the credit
Credits are also available if you've had seven interruptions in a 12-month period.
Any customer of an electric utility that's regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission is eligible for the credit.