Ann Arbor, Mich. — DTE Energy has faced a fair amount of criticism over a recent extended blackout that affected hundreds of thousands of people, and that includes many complaints in Ann Arbor about DTE’s new outage map.
City councilor Jane Eyre, D-4th Ward, said it was flawed, inaccurate and caused confusion in the aftermath of the February 22 ice storm that left many residents without power for several days.
“We expect better DTE when it comes to a winter storm where people are freezing in their homes,” she said.
Now she and City Manager Milton Dohony are setting up a meeting with DTE officials to talk about the concerns.
There have been widespread problems with the new DTE map showing incorrect outages, Eyre said, noting that she’s received reports from a number of residents about DTE marking their blocks or neighborhoods as having power restored when they haven’t, and residents having to reset Report outages. .
In many cases, automated DTE text alerts and email to customers also conflicted with outages in people’s homes or with what the map showed, Ayer said.
“The level of confusion in the community based on the DTE connection was off the charts,” she said, noting that many were unsure when power would be restored.
While DTE has announced that it will send $35 credits to customers who have gone without power for 96 hours, it remains unclear to some whether they will qualify in cases where DTE has identified power as being restored earlier than it actually was, Ayer said.
DTE did not respond to a request for comment from MLive/The Ann Arbor News, though on its website it describes the outage map as newly improved, noting that it allows people to search by address and zoom in for information about specific locations, with the ability to click icons. Displays outage numbers.
Subtract DTE a YouTube video On February 5th explain how to use the map.
“DTE’s new improved outage map delivers an updated user experience, making it easy to have accurate and timely information at your fingertips,” it states. “You’ll notice a streamlined look that ensures users can quickly access the information they need.”
By clicking on the menu button, users can report outages and power lines and check outages.
By clicking the information icon, users can toggle to view outages by zip code or county.
As of Friday afternoon, March 3, the map showed that 223 DTE customers in Washtenaw County remained without power, which is 0.13% of customers. The map showed that there were still more than 2,000 other customers without power throughout the DTE service area in Southeast Michigan.
‘Totally unacceptable’: Washtenaw County leaders blast DTE Energy and consumers after ice storm
Some residents have taken to social media to criticize the new map, noting that it does not allow users to see a broad view of the geographic boundaries of the outages, and instead now displays small icons with outage numbers for public areas. Some have speculated that this is intentional to avoid people taking screenshots showing the extent of the outages.
Eyre said she’s been communicating with DTE throughout the outages, sharing examples of concerned residents that their outage status wasn’t right.
she Issued a call on Nextdoor For more people to share their stories, get 140 responses from residents who expressed concerns about lack of information or inaccurate information from the DTE, including neighborhoods marked as having regained power when they had no power.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this in our community,” Ayer said of the collective confusion.
“You should be able to look up your address and get good information,” she said. “That’s what’s really troubling is that a lot of people have been in a position where they feel they had to — and had to — re-report because the entire neighborhood was mistakenly marked as disbanded.”
Critics of DTE also expressed concerns that the for-profit utility, in a recent quarterly earnings call with shareholders, laid out plans to lower operations and maintenance costs this year by postponing maintenance, delaying hiring, reducing contractors’ workforces, and limiting overtime.
This has some proponents of forming a public energy utility echoing calls to get rid of DTE in Ann Arbor.
Is it time for public power in Ann Arbor? The group makes the case after recent outages
In response to concerns about the cuts, DTE said last week because it has invested more in maintenance in 2022, the company is able to defer non-critical maintenance work this year and will reschedule work for 2024.
One-time cost-saving measures Only deferring maintenance does not include reliability-critical programs such as tree pruning, according to DTE.
City Councilwoman Dharma Akmon, D-4th Ward, said Thursday that she was appalled that some residents were still without power after more than a week since the power went out.
In a Twitter post Friday, Councilwoman Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, D-3rd Ward, said she was contacted about an elderly resident who is on the ninth day without power, with another winter storm on the way. She encouraged residents who remain without authority to email city officials at [email protected].
“All of our #a2council and our Mayor would like to know if you are still out of power and help you get it back up and running,” she wrote.
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