DTE encourages homeowners to reduce energy use amid heat wave

As the heat wave descends upon metro Detroit, DTE Energy is reminding customers to be mindful of how much energy they're using.

"The greatest pressure on our system is between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. during the day. So, anything you can do to try to avoid overuse of our system at that time is ideal," said Carmen Welch, Director of Energy Efficiency at DTE.

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Welch recommends homeowners close blinds and curtains inside their homes, use ceiling fans, run appliances at night, and cook outdoors when possible to keep the inside of homes cool.

Welch also recommends homeowners set their thermostats to 78 degrees to avoid overtaxing the system.

As the temperatures are set to remain high this week and more AC units are in use to combat the 90+ degree heat, the risk of outages and brownouts grows. It's something homeowners in a Livonia neighborhood say they were already concerned about.

RELATED VIDEO: DTE: How to keep bills affordable during extreme heat

DTE: How to keep bills affordable during extreme heat

Before the temperature got a chance to hit 90 degrees Monday, a rain storm killed power to homes near I-96 and Newburgh in the morning.

"It’s so hot. You can already feel the humidity picking up and I was thinking just previous to losing power, oh my gosh, it’s going to be so hot," said Kathleen Wallon. " I know over time the grids going to be overloaded and then (the outage) happened this morning and I'm like no."

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Wallon says after rain pushed through the area Monday morning, she heard a loud boom and then lost power. She says neighbors were already on high alert for outages after an EF-1 tornado knocked out power to dozens at the beginning of the month.

"I’m worried too about my food in the refrigerator and freezer. We went through all that last week and you replenish and it’s like here we go again," said Wallon.

Neighbors in the area say losing power is something that happens at random at least a few times a year.

"Given what happened a couple weeks ago, it’s just one more thing I don’t necessarily want to deal with and I work from home so I don’t have a home office to go to. So, it’s really hard. We now have a generator but it’s hard if you don’t have a generator," said Jennifer Cummins.

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DTE says if there are any system failures over the next few days, they have crews ready to respond.

"Hopefully it won’t get to that point because I’m not a heat-loving girl anyway and nobody loves extreme heat," said Wallon.

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