September 30th, 2023

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AG Nessel recently intervened in a Consumer’s Energy gas rate case in which they requested a $175 million rate increase and a $2-per-month increase in service charges. AG Nessel’s intervention in this case reduced the rate increase to only $95 million, or an average of 3.9% increase for residential ratepayers.

AG Nessel’s continued interventions at the Public Service Commission are necessary to minimize rate increase for ratepayers in Michigan. However, big utilities like Consumer’s Energy and DTE Energy continue to file for large rate increases each year even while earning significant profit for shareholders. In 2023, Consumers Energy gross profit was $1.071 billion, a nearly 7% increase from 2022. More, it is apparent that major IOU’s ‘bake in’ a cushion into their compensation requests in expectation of a PSC reduction.  

Michigan LCV will continue to watch rate-case outcomes at the PSC for signs that regulators are increasingly holding IOU’s to task in delivering meaningful and measurable grid reliability improvements for the return requested.  The status quo is not working.