Brian Wheeler-Consumers Energy Power Restoration 8-28-24

keeping a track of uh the storm damage and the restoration of power Brian wheeler from Consumers Energy on the line with this this morning it seems like it's uh I don't know is it more or less this summer as far as storm damage seems like we've got an awful lot of them not necessarily always big wide areas but uh where they are they seem pretty intense Brian aren't they yeah I think that's a good description you maybe it's coincidence I mean you never can draw out any long-term conclusions really but uh this year it seems like every month practically there's been a big storm one after the other I think we were Dr a little bit of a break through July but uh August is not reminding us how it can be so uh nice description of the storm is saying it rised through because once it once it hit that sort of Northwest part of the lower Peninsula um you know it came down through the uh flint and sagona areas Midland area and then also also scoot it down uh as we know through cold water through Ling and uh we're dealing with the the consequences yeah well it's not only you guys but of course you got DTE on the east side of the state and Indiana and Michigan Power and the the very southwest corner too and then Great Lakes power up on the coast the the west coast of the state too just north of where consumers has their areas so awful lot of folks lost power for for you guys it was what about almost 170,000 all total yeah I think we're still doing the math but 170 175,000 looking at the map right now we're we're down below 120 2,000 so you know that first wave of progress has been made um we were we were spared a little bit there was a second wave of bad weather that was coming through the state that didn't quite materialize yesterday so we were able to make that progress overnight but uh 360 Crews and Counting um and they'll get their eight hours of rest they'll be working 16 hour days today and tomorrow to to get the work done get the power back on right when you guys try to work on assessing this obviously people report in and and you start putting the stuff up on the outage and that kind of thing but uh as you roll out the progress of this is it bringing Crews from out of state to be a part of this is it try to just figure out where the outages are and get your own crews out there kind of walk us through what that process looked like yesterday yeah yeah and and there's always I mean we have two about two million close to two million uh homes and businesses across the whole lower Peninsula so you're always looking at that map and the projected path of the storm um so far we're concentrating our work with uh Consumers Energy Crews with contractors from within the state but it is possible we'll know later today if we get some help from other states um but it would not be out of the question I would say um but yeah I mean you try to you try to preposition people as best you can you try to make sure that you we have service centers and headquarters around the state so you're trying to sometimes move a crew from say from Lancing to Grand Rapids or vice versa or you know Lancing to cold water um but you know a storm like this it didn't really uh ease up any part of of the state so as much as you can move those Crews we have a lot of ground to cover be it from Flint Grand Rapid uh PL and cold water obviously there's always criticism of of a utility when your power is not on for you know whether it's you guys or DTE or anybody else that when when the power doesn't come on and obviously it's it's it's usually down trees that take down power lines for the most part I mean most time it's not your power poles themselves that that come town but unless you clearcut everything you're never going to totally eliminate that right yeah there's a balancing act there and I think you know you can certainly appreciate when you have 70 m per hour winds um an entire trees are uprooted you know I saw I saw one picture that you know the couple blocks of the sidewalk where or a couple pieces of the sidewalk came up with a tree as well I me that's a that's a major piece of of damage there um but you know the criticism is is something we we understand I mean we don't want power to be out we all feel to be in that situation and it's why uh I know we've talked before about our reliability Road where you know we have to make those investments in the system to make it stronger um they may not protect you from the most catastrophic weather but they certainly have some mitigating effect uh to lessen that impact so it's up to us to you know get the power back on today and tomorrow and then to keep the work going to make sure that systems just stronger to withand more and more um we know nature is not going to take a break so we can't do that yeah and I kind of liken alinan the folks that work for you guys kind of almost like firemen I mean when something happen they have to be there you know but then there's obviously a lot of other calm times in between right yeah exactly yeah so First Responders I mean that's the the role they really play in situations like this and we're coordinating today with Road commissions with police and fire because um it's not just the Consumers Energy power grid that's effed of course those those trees are AC Crossroads or uprooting sidewalks um so there's there's a lot of logistics that go into it we in our in our perfect world right we would have fewer storms uh or you know ones that we can we can limit the damage from them then give us more time to have those line workers go out there and rebuild and strengthen the system every day so adding the technology to sense regular aty um keeping the squirrels away from the sub stations you know the the the sort of Blue Sky situations that really can be difficult you we understand when the weather is like this today but we we know on a a clear blue day nobody should even expect power to be out in the first place yeah well and again it coincidentally happened although probably because of it the hot steamy temperatures yesterday folks without power luckily that the the temperature has dropped once that storm moved through so it wasn't quite as brutal as it could have been for a lot of folks without power then yeah yeah we're pro we're providing water and ice in a couple of communities uh outside your immediate area uh up up near Grand Rapids uh the Midland area today um but I'm sure I'm sure it was an uncomfortable night for some people who lost power it was pry warm overnight so yeah we're fortunate that uh it's the conditions are better today a little bit cooler um but certainly you know stay safe if you're going to be home um today's probably a good day to start opening the windows and airing airing things out stay cool stay safe while you can and know that uh you know we're on the job to get the power back he's with the Communications Department of Consumers Energy with us Brian wheeler Brian thanks for checking in all right absolutely here's the better weather there you go