we welcome the vice president of electric operations at Consumers Energy Chris lard hey Chris good to see you good afternoon Bart how are you I'm great how are you doing today good thank you good we've uh talked to G Chris before um during the pandemic via zoom and we've had some uh crazy Summers but this summer we've just had a lot of rain it doesn't seem like we've had a lot of uh storm events to cause a lot of power outages yeah we the weather pattern is definitely changing we've still seen quite a bit of activity the joy of consumers is we have customers in all 68 counties in the lower Peninsula so while may not be as much here other parts of the state are seeing quite a bit of it so we're always prepared to deal with that yeah particularly along uh the area where you live uh the West Michigan uh Shoreline I think even that big rain event that we had uh couple weeks ago that was also a big wind event for that part of the state yeah the MOs area had 76 mph sheer winds coming off the lake and did some pretty bad Devastation to the communities up there in whiteall monteu area so are we actually seeing um the weather pattern change as a result of uh the planet warming yeah we've seen increased wind over the past three years so there's definitely something that's changing that for us um we've seen more tornadoes this year in the state of Michigan than we have historically as well so all that's directly correlated for sure yeah and that uh rain that some people are calling you know the 100-year rainfall uh we shouldn't see it you know for another 100 years but uh chances are it's it's going to be a lot sooner than that yeah yeah I believe so too and the rain's good for us it helps everything grow it's nice and green and it keeps down risk of wildfire and other items that we have to battle in the state but it causes other issues for us for sure and surprises a lot of people that um you've made a real bold um commitment um to be more reliable even when the wind is causing more uh electric failure events yeah that's true so three years ago we announced our reliability road map and that's a 10-year strategy in order to have three big stands for us and two of those are no more than 100,000 customers out given any event and all customers were stored in 24 hours and ever since we made that promise on behalf of our customers we track every single event we problem solve and do everything we can to get better every single time so we know why the power is going out um it's the trees taking down the lines right yeah that's our number one cause over a third of our outages are due to trees so we we don't want to get rid of all our trees we can't bury the lines underground and why can't we we can in some spaces I think we have to be selective of where we can do that but there's just areas it's not feasible able to do that based on cost factors so what we need to do then is separate the trees from the lines how how do you do that yeah so we have an aggressive strategy we're in year three of trimming over 7,000 miles a line every single year for a frame reference if you drive from cazoo to Detroit every other week that's how many miles of lines we're going to trim every week of the year throughout the course of the year really so we've got 253 contractors working for us on the system right now all across the state and they're working their tails off to get those trees trimmed um we do follow Arbor vital standards so we make sure that we healthy and go through and trim the trees on a healthy standpoint and our Foresters are very very astute at being able to work through those challenges so we've seen the giant transmission uh towers and lines that it's it's a big Valley you create there's nothing uh on either side for yards and yards yep you can't do that with typically uh Street side utility lines can you so we have different trim standards on our big transmission lines um our rways are quite a bit bigger and we do a practice called Ground to Sky trimming and that's to keep everything away from it as you get into residential distribution the community you try to work through uh the beautification of a a community and trim those trees from a healthy standpoint but keep them back at least 15 ft away from our lines so that we minimize the amount of interruptions that we have from them we're all seeing what's happening in Northern California right now forest fires um and really um they could happen anywhere they could happen here yeah you must look at that as being uh a risk to uh to well one to uh as a cause of fire but also as a an interruptor of electricity yeah both so we have a team here at consumers that's dedicated just to look at the Wildfire strategy we just launched our first plan with that people don't think of Michigan is a wildfire state but we've had two of the biggest 10 um fire in the history of the country in Michigan both of them pre1 1900 but one of those when the Great Chicago Fire happened came into Southwest Michigan another one over in the thumb area so we do work with FEMA the Michigan DNR to look at those areas and we use that in our calculation to figure out where we're going to trim first so who does the tree trimming do you have your own people or do you have uh tree contractors we have a several different contractors from within the state of Michigan that does the city of our maintenance uh trimming for us emergent trimming can be done by our line resources our guys and gals in the blue and white bucket trucks so with all the trimming that you are are doing it sounds very aggressive are you seeing some uh solid results oh absolutely yeah year one when we went through the areas that had seen a lot of interruptions are seeing very very minimal if any at all and when we get through this first round of seven-year trim cycle we expect to see a big big Improvement and then we'll start right back over again and every time we go through it gets better better yeah cuz trees they don't stop growing correct correct and we use technology to look at what kind of tree it is what's the growth pattern based off soil density the rain that comes in and then we target that specifically with how soon we get back out and trim those trees now I think with the rains that we had um earlier this month the ground became so saturated that a lot of trees just toppled over without any uh wind or anything yeah they become really heavy when they get all that moisture in them and then the root structure when it's not good and sandy soil the winds will blow those over for sure do uh residents have any responsibility when it comes to uh keeping uh their trees trimmed we'll trim the trees that are out on the primary lines and we'll come and work with them if they have questions they can always call us at 1 8004775050 or go to our website consumersenergy.com forestry we'll get them in touch with a representative walk through that I would stay away from the lines if I can give a safety message stay away from lines stay away from trees that are in contact with lines call us and we'll make sure we get somebody out so uh to reach the goal of your uh reliability uh road map it's not just tree trimming um and you can't bury lines everywhere so what other things are you guys doing yeah we are going to bury some line strategically around the state where we uh know that we can get in the soil's good for it there in areas we can do it at a cost effective standpoint but we've also brought in new ductal iron poles so bigger and beefier poles and we'll put those and select locations we've changed the size and standard of our wood poles in the conductor we're putting what we call tree wire which is wire that has a coating on the outside of it so if a limb touches it it doesn't cause an interruption for us and then we're using all kinds of new technology um we call them ATR Loop so power's fed from two directions and if it senses powers out in one way it feeds it the other and picks it back up with customers not even noticing the interruption H remember years ago in the early days of the the internet uh there was uh talk about the internet delivering electricity haven't seen that come to fruition just yet no probably not going to happen I I would hope not there is a uh a fable that um it's cheaper for you to go out and fix the lines than it is to uh put in the time in advance of a of a storm to prevent them from coming down in the first place not true so we actually save 40% by doing the work ahead of time so we're inspecting our miles of lines um we have about 95,000 mil of line enough to go around the earth almost four times um and we go out and inspect those lines every other year so we get out we identify potential future failures and then we have a whole strategy with our work plan to go out and take care of those before an outage occurs when our resources aren't on overtime in harsh conditions to restore that so along uh the West Michigan uh Coast we're seeing like increases in uh wind speed what what other things are you seeing there that's maybe alarming to you as uh as an electric provider yeah I think from a forestry standpoint we've got some new things going on we had the emerald ashbo for a long time so on the lake shers they have a lot of ash trees that are out there we're seeing Oak wlt so big strong trees are prematurely failing they're falling on our lines even those outside of rightaway that can fall and touch our lines that initially we don't trim going through because they look heal on the outside those are falling getting to our line so those are two of the bigger risks we're looking at from a forestry standpoint but then is climate changes in the winter snow doesn't really do a lot of damage to our system but ice can be devastating to our system so just watching those temps and trying to make sure that all this new stronger poles steel poles treewire bigger beefe conductor all that is built to withstand increased levels of ice yeah so are we doing that are we switching you think about wood poles it seems kind of I mean it's that's a 100 year old technology yeah we're actually doing that right now we're changing it out and we have this awesome training facility in Marshall Michigan so we test all of our new products there create all the standards make sure that we've got all the training Associated and we're deploying it so we have iron poles in three communities right now we're going to continue to expand that across the state that makes a difference makes a big difference for us yep cuz the trees I mean the the poles are made out of trees and they're going to snap as well well as easily as a tree so the iron P stay up the wire would be the piece that comes down and that's easier for us to pull it out put it back up in the air and do you know where the power is out do you know where like you've got uh lines running through uh you know Forest where there's there aren't people for Miles yeah we have so we can use our smart meters to be able to tell us where outages are we also have line sensors out in the system so it'll tell us if there's a fault the cruise can go out and go directly to that line section to get it on and we can to use increased technology to automate the system and know right away when there's issues happening so your dream is someday that um people won't know what a power failure is correct wow all right sounds like you're making uh great progress we're working hard for our customers to do so well we appreciate it we like the lights on us too and the air conditioning absolutely today especially thanks for coming in today thanks Bart appreciate it uh Chris leard is Vice President of electric operations at consumer energy