Consumers Energy has asked Michigan regulators for another $456 million electric rate increase, a request filed less than three months after the company won approval for a $276.6 million hike. The utility’s latest move would affect about 1.9 million electric customers across Michigan if regulators approve it.
The filing comes to the Michigan Public Service Commission with several parts attached. Consumers Energy is seeking a 9.8% increase in residential electric rates, a 12-month surcharge of $25 million and another $52 million over three years for storm restoration expenses. It is also asking regulators to continue and expand the Investment Recovery Mechanism approved in its last rate case.
Since 2020, the commission has approved nearly $800 million in rate hikes for Consumers Energy, making the company’s latest request the newest test of how far state regulators are willing to go. The utility also serves 1.8 million natural gas customers in Michigan, but this filing covers electricity.
Consumers Energy says the spending is needed to cut the number and length of outages. In its filing, the company said its goal is fewer and shorter power outages for customers, and that without the investments it wants, the reliability improvements it seeks cannot happen.
Dana Nessel said on Tuesday that her office plans to intervene in the case, arguing that the request is loaded with completely unsupported, inflated costs. She has pressed a broader affordability argument in past utility fights, saying Michiganders are facing an affordability crisis while utility companies record record profits.
The new case lands while several other rate requests are already pending before the commission, including Consumers Energy’s natural gas rate hike request, DTE’s natural gas and electric requests, SEMCO Energy Gas Company’s gas request and Upper Peninsula Power Company’s electric request. The commission now has to sort through another large utility filing soon after granting the company a major increase.
The central question is how much of the $456 million request regulators will allow, if any, as the attorney general prepares to challenge the numbers and Consumers Energy pushes for more money to pay for reliability work.
