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Consumers Energy outlines wildfire mitigation and a 35-mile undergrounding pilot for northern Michigan
Summary
A Consumers Energy manager described a reliability roadmap to the Oscoda County Board, including a statewide 100,000-customer outage threshold, a goal to restore most outages within 24 hours and an undergrounding pilot expanding from 10 to 35 miles; the plan emphasizes substation investments and forestry management.
Richard Castle, Consumers Energy Community Affairs Manager, told the Oscoda County Board on Sept. 10 that the company’s Northern Michigan reliability work centers on investments to reduce outages and speed restoration. He described a statewide rule that "no single outage will affect more than 100,000 customers" and said the company aims to restore customers within a 24-hour period, noting that "more than 90–95% of the outages are less than 24-hours before being restored."
Castle outlined planned investments in new substations, equipment replacement, grid modernization, forestry management, equity and environmental-justice considerations in the region. He described the company’s Wildfire & Risk Mitigation Plan, saying western Oscoda County appears on FEMA maps and census-tracked risk maps as an area of heightened wildfire concern.
Castle said Consumers Energy has an undergrounding pilot that began at a 10-mile radius and will expand toward a 35-mile radius; he also said the company evaluates difficult terrain where undergrounding or rebuilding may be impractical. When Commissioner Jackie Bondar asked about work in swamp areas, Castle said that is "part of the evaluation to determine how we will go through those areas" and acknowledged the company would try to avoid swampy areas where possible due to difficulty.
Why this matters: The utility’s plans affect local reliability, wildfire risk mitigation and potential future infrastructure projects that could require county coordination or permitting. County residents may see distribution upgrades and increased vegetation-management activity in coming months.
No board vote was required on the presentation; Commissioners asked clarifying questions about specific local terrain and restoration goals.
