Consumers Energy expecting to restore power to 300K customers by Friday night

JACKSON, Mich. – Consumers Energy said it expects to have power restored to 300,000 customers by Friday night (Aug. 13) following severe weather this week.

According to a press release, more than 550 crews will continue to work 16-hour shifts, including contractors from across Michigan and seven states to complete restoring power to all 370,000 homes and businesses. Most homes and businesses should have power by late Saturday night and almost all restoration work is expected to be done by the end of the weekend.

Read: Metro Detroit power restoration expected to be completed by end of weekend

Read: DTE Energy: 95% of power outages to be restored by Sunday night

“We feel good about our plan to finish restoring power to nearly all customers by the end of the weekend as 2,000 lineworkers continue working around the clock,” said Guy Packard, Consumers Energy vice president for electric operations. “We are grateful for our customers’ patience and cooperation through this storm. We’ll continue to reach out to communities this weekend and host family-fun activities and events to offer a small token of our appreciation.”

Customers can check the progress crews are making to restore power by visiting consumersenergy.com/outagecenter. They can also sign up to get outage alerts and restoration times sent to a phone, email or text message -- text ‘REG’ to 232273 -- or visit consumersenergy.com/alerts.

Consumers Energy reminds everyone to stay focused on safety, and is offering these tips:

• If traffic lights are out, treat them as a four way stop and use caution moving through intersections.
• Be aware of possible downed wires. Report them to 9-1-1 or Consumers Energy at 800-477-5050 immediately while staying at least 25 feet away.
• If you’ve already reported a downed wire, we appreciate your patience as we work hard to safely secure the remaining incidents. More than 6,000 downed wires have been reported since Tuesday.
• Be alert to crews working along roads. Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they safely can go past workers on roadsides.
• Call 2-1-1 to connect with resources that offer assistance in your community, such as cooling centers or other needs. 2-1-1 is a free statewide service.
• Never use a generator in an attached garage, basement, enclosed patio or near any air intakes. Doing so could cause a generator to produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless and deadly gas.
• Consumers Energy will trim or remove trees interfering with electric restoration activities. Once safe to do so, clean-up of debris from tree trimming or removal during a storm emergency is the responsibility of individual property owners.
• In some cases, the mast which holds the electric service wires to a customer’s home or business may have been damaged or torn away. Crews will reconnect the wires to a home, but only a licensed electrician can repair or replace a mast or a cable.

Read: DTE Energy crews work around the clock to restore power to Metro Detroit