Still without power? Some Metro Detroiters may be able to get a credit from DTE — but not quite yet

(WWJ) — Tuesday’s storms that swept across Michigan left hundreds of thousands of people without power.

At the peak, more than 350,000 DTE Energy and Consumers Energy customers were in the dark. And Thursday afternoon, about 70,000 across the state remained offline , with many Michiganders feeling frustrated by the outage.

A spokesperson for the Michigan Public Service Commission says the department has been receiving complaints from many who are still without power following the storms, which he said knocked out power for 10% or more of each utility’s customers.

The good news is, some customers may be eligible to receive a credit from DTE or Consumers for the outage. But the bad news is, due to how many people lost power, it hasn’t quite been long enough for many of those customers.

The utilities have 96 hours (four days) to restore power before the credits kick in, since more than 10% of customers lost power.

In years past, power outage credits used to be a one-time thing, giving customers $25 per incident and customers had to request them from their energy company.

Now, customers will automatically receive a $38 outage credit if they lose power for 96 hours or longer when more than 10% of the utility has an outage.

Once your outage qualifies for a credit, you will receive an additional $38 a day for every day the outage continues. Your utility will add the credit to your account once you qualify.

Last year the commission raised the outage credit to $35 for each day and it has been indexed to inflation, with the MPSC raising it to $38. It is expected to be adjusted again this year by Oct. 1.

In other cases of outages, customers will receive the $38 outage credit if they lose power for
• 16 hours when less than 1% of the utility’s customers have an outage
• 48 hours when more than 1% but less than 10% of the utility’s customers have an outage

Additionally, customers will receive the $38 credit if they have more than six interruptions in 12 months. The interruptions must last at least five minutes to qualify. Once the credit is paid, the number of interruptions resets to zero. Your utility will add the credit to your account once you qualify.

If you have questions about these credits, call your utility or the MPSC.