Michigan Has One of America’s Least Reliable Power Grids

One thing Michiganders have in common all across the state is their power goes out. It is not always storm-related because the grid is one of America's least reliable.

Who Owns Michigan's Power Grid?

As I'm writing about Michigan's power grid, I decided to put on some AC/DC while I work to get me in the electric mood.

Unlike Texas, Michigan does not own an independent power grid. North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) of Atlanta, Georgia, is responsible for Michigan's power grid. NERC connects most of the United States, Canada, and is linked to Mexico.

With Michigan being America's number one auto producer and all the factories our power grid would be one of the strongest. Still, it is one of the worst in the country with far more outages than any other state and sometimes states combined except for Texas.

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Michigan Has one of America's Least Reliable Power Grids

Michigan has had 174 major power outages in the last 23 years attributed to extreme weather. Michigan gets plenty of bad weather with thunderstorms, tornadoes, ice storms, high winds, and snow storms.

Michigan lawmakers are putting more pressure on Consumers' energy and DTE to either step up their game or lower their costs since the performance of their companies is some of the worst in the nation. A weak system also makes Michigan more susceptible to homeland terrorist attacks on our power system which other states have already experienced.

In the Reddit thread, a poster by the handle of 96ToyotaCamry noted the lack of maintenance on cutting tree branches near power lines and dry-rotted wooden posts contribute a lot to Michigan's power outages. Poster Strange-Scarcity stated the $1 billion in profits should offset maintenance but profits are more important. The kicker is, DTE and Consumers want to raise our power bills to pay for better regular maintenance and installing iron poles instead of wooden poles.

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Companies don't care about consumers until they stop buying their products but we all need power and they know it. Maybe it's time to eliminate them with solar panels and solar generators.