Consumers Energy to bury 10 miles of power lines in 6 Michigan counties

JACKSON, MI – Consumers Energy is kicking off an expensive power grid reliability pilot project approved by state regulators.

The Michigan Public Service Commission signed off on a $3.7 million investment in efforts to place 10 miles of overhead electricity service lines underground in six counties. Circuits in Genesee, Livingston, Allegan, Ottawa, Montcalm, and Iosco counties that have frequent, lengthy outages in tree-dense areas will be targeted first.

Company officials said the goal is to learn cost-effective ways to bury the power lines so the company can expand those efforts to more areas. The hope to put more than 1,000 miles of lines underground in the next five years if regulators approve.

“Burying power lines will help make the grid stronger and more reliable,” Greg Salisbury, Consumers’ vice president of electric distribution engineering, said in a statement.

The pilot program is part of a long-term plan, officials said. Underground lines are better protected from common weather-related outage causes, such as lightning, high winds, falling limbs, heavy snow, ice accumulation, and even tornadoes.

Chris Laird, Consumers’ vice president of electric operations, said they cannot control Mother Nature, but they can control how to prepare for more extreme weather.

“Burying power lines is just one tool we can use in our growing toolbox to prevent outages from impacting our customers. We are committed to delivering more reliable energy for all customers,” Laird said in a statement.

Currently, about 15% of all Consumers Energy electric lines are underground, primarily in subdivisions with high population density.

Salisbury underscored that burying power lines may be the best solution for some areas but not others.

Last fall, Consumers Energy unveiled its “reliability roadmap,” a plan to build what officials called an “almost hurricane strength” power grid. This comes after recent years brought climate change-fueled storms with the strongest, most damaging winds of the last two decades.

The utility’s plan involves investments in smart technology and automation on electric lines, ramped up tree-trimming along overhead lines, and infrastructure upgrades.

Workers will annually trim trees along 7,000 miles of electric lines and system engineers will inspect more than 25,000 miles each year. New fuse systems and automatic transfer reclosers will be installed and are expected to limit how widespread outages become.

Michigan residents have for years complained about more frequent and increasingly lengthy power outages. Regulators have increased oversight by ordering an independent audit of both Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, and are even considering a “straw proposal” to tie utility earnings to grid reliability.

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